Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine/Print version

Introduction

This is the second chapter of a wikibook entitled Basic Physics of Nuclear Medicine.

We saw in the last chapter that radioactivity is a process used by unstable nuclei to achieve a more stable situation. It is said that such nuclei decay in an attempt to achieve stability. So, an alternative title for this chapter is Nuclear Decay Processes.

We also saw in the previous chapter that we can use the Nuclear Stability Curve as a means of describing what is going on. So a second alternative title for this chapter is Methods of Getting onto the Nuclear Stability Curve.

We are going to follow a descriptive or phenomenological approach to the topic here by describing in a fairly simple fashion what is known about each of the major decay mechanisms. Once again you may have already covered this material in high school physics. But bear with us because the treatment here will help us set the scene for subsequent chapters.