JEE Advance - Physics (2012 - Paper 1 Offline - No. 18)

A proton is fired from very far away towards a nucleus with charge Q = 120e, where e is the electronic charge. It makes a closest approach of 10 fm to the nucleus. The de Broglie wavelength (in units of fm) of the proton at its start is ____________. (Take the proton mass, $${m_p} = (5 \times 3) \times {10^{ - 27}}$$ kg; $$h/e = 4.2 \times {10^{ - 15}}$$ J.s/C; $${1 \over {4\pi {\varepsilon _0}}} = 9 \times {10^9}$$ m/F; 1 fm = 1015 m.)
Answer
7

Explanation

Let initial and final kinetic energies of the proton be Ki and Kf and corresponding potential energies be Ui and Uf. When proton is far away from the nucleus (r $$\to$$ $$\infty$$), its potential energy is

$${U_i} = \mathop {\lim }\limits_{r \to \infty } {1 \over {4\pi {\varepsilon _0}}}{{120{e^2}} \over r} = 0$$.

At closest distance, the proton comes to rest momentarily, giving Kf = 0. The potential energy at closest distance is

$${U_f} = {1 \over {4\pi {\varepsilon _0}}}{{120{e^2}} \over a}$$,

where a is the distance of closest approach. Since electrostatic force is conservative, total energy is conserved i.e., $${K_i} + {U_i} = {K_f} + {U_f}$$. Substitute the values to get

$${K_i} = {U_f} = {1 \over {4\pi {\varepsilon _0}}}{{120{e^2}} \over a}$$

The de-Broglie wavelength of the proton is given by

$${\lambda _i} = {h \over {{p_i}}} = {h \over {\sqrt {2{m_p}{K_i}} }} = {h \over e}\sqrt {{{4\pi {\varepsilon _0}a} \over {240{m_p}}}} $$

$$ = 4.2 \times {10^{ - 15}}{\left( {{{10 \times {{10}^{ - 15}}} \over {9 \times {{10}^9} \times 240 \times (5/3) \times {{10}^{ - 27}}}}} \right)^{1/2}}$$

= 7 fm.

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