2

This question is brief and simple. As a layman, it is my understanding that QCD (Quantum Chromodynamics) explains the nuclear force as a "residual" force, mediated by pions (mesons), which pinch off as "virtual" pairs of quarks from the protons and neutrons. In terms of pions being responsible for the residual nuclear force, how does one fit nuclear fission into the picture? Is the energy from the splitting of, say, a uranium isotope coming from the release of pions or something? When "binding energy", generated by pion exchange, is released, what is happening on the quark level, or on the level of QCD? Any info or reference is appreciated.

EDIT: This question has been resolved, because I've found Nuclear effective field theory: Status and perspectives. I never heard of nuclear EFT or "ab initio nuclear physics," it is not something you come across in standard reading, but this is precisely what I was looking for. Also, Microscopic Theory of Nuclear Fission (PDF).

GrapefruitIsAwesome
  • 587
muldrowhanif
  • 21

1 Answers1

6

Brief and simple question with no brief and simple answer.

Pion exchange is not alone in explaining the nuclear effective potential, and especially its repulsive core. How QCD connects to standard nuclear physics with characteristic/binding energies of about 8MeV, two orders of magnitude below the QCD confinement scale is a tricky and recondite issue, and, for all practical purposes, sheds very little crucial light in the type of nuclear forces and energy release involved in nuclear fission.

So my first instinct is to discourage you from finding good explanations of fission in QCD; one had best accept conventional nuclear physics, systematics and potentials, etc, to understand fission, before resorting to much, much higher energy QCD to connect the foundations of such nuclear physics to it. It is an academic, still confused area which no simplistic popular science "story" can serve to illuminate.

Cosmas Zachos
  • 67,623