On Wed, Dec 9, 2015 at 10:45 PM, Jones Beene <[email protected]> wrote:
*From:* Eric Walker > > > > The nuclear force is very short range. > > > > Ø Here is where I'm inclined to part with conventional wisdom. > [...snip...] > This is arguable not true. > Interesting points. Also, it occurred to me that the de Broglie wavelength of a thermal neutron is approx. 100 pm, which is on the order of the distance between lattice sites in a metal. This large wavelength is behind the diffraction patterns one sees in detectors for neutron scattering. Perhaps the neutron wavefunction readily overlaps with that of the 135Xe nucleus as it passes by, and that for hand-wavy reasons the strong force need not have a longer range than 1 fm. (Can there be a similar resonance for alphas?) Eric
