Photo Disintegration, main difference, importance

 

How photodisintegration works?

 Let's take a break and watch this video regarding photodisintegration x-ray! :D 

Highlight: A carbon-12 atom is photodisintegrated into three alpha particles by a high-energy x-ray photon.

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Photodisintegration in a core-collapsed supernova

 

When a high-energy photon is absorbed by an atomic nucleus, photodisintegration occurs. A neutron, proton, or alpha particle is released as the nucleus divides to form lighter elements. 

Photodisintegration breaks up iron nuclei into helium nuclei and neutrons during a supernova's core collapse, undoing hundreds of thousands of years of nuclear fusion.

γ + ⁵⁶Fe → 13⁴He + 4n

Via photodisintegration, these helium nuclei are split into protons and neutrons, the fundamental basic components of elements.

γ + ⁴He → 2p⁺ + 2n

Phototransmutation

• Photodisintegration, also called Phototransmutation, in physics, a nuclear reaction in which the absorption of high-energy electromagnetic radiation (a gamma-ray photon)
• It causes the absorbing nucleus to change to another species by ejecting a subatomic particle, such as a proton, neutron, or alpha particle.
• For example, magnesium-25, upon absorbing a photon of sufficient energy, emits a proton and becomes sodium-24. Photodisintegration differs from the nuclear reaction photofission, in which a nucleus, upon absorbing a photon, splits into two fragments of nearly equal mass.