AAPT Abstract Archive
Menu  

Abstract Information

 
spacer
  Session: Post-dealine Session III
  Paper Type: Contributed
  Title: The Multipole Expansion of the Electric Potential and Non-Spherical Nuclei
  Meeting: 2014 Summer Meeting: Minneapolis, Minnesota
  Location: N/A
  Date:
  Time: 1:20PM
  Author: John Karkheck, Marquette University
414-288-7358, John.Karkheck@marquette.edu
  Co-Author(s): None
  Abstract: The multipole expansion of the electric potential, developed in electrostatics, is a powerful tool for elucidating relationships between shape of electric fields and geometric symmetry of charge distributions. In standard texts, thorough development is given for the first two terms, the monopole and dipole terms. The third term, the quadrupole term, is analytically tractable in symmetric situations such as ellipsoids of revolution which serve as fruitful models for employing the quadrupole moment of non-spherical nuclei to estimate nuclear dimensions. A standard analysis found in nuclear-physics texts employs the assumption that deviations from sphericity are small, a condition that often does not hold. The approach here, based on the assumption of shape-independent nuclear density, results in an exactly solvable cubic equation for the semi-major axis. Comparison is given of results from the two approaches.
  Footnotes: None
  Presentation: KarkheckAAPTJuly302014.pptx

2003 © American Association of Physics Teachers
Have questions about this site? Email the webmaster.
AAPT Home AAPT Abstract Archive Past Meeting Info