ABSTRACT
According to the shell model of the nucleus, the forces existing between nucleons
determine a structure supported by discrete strong binding energies as illustrated in Figure 2.1.
This could appear paradoxical because the nucleus is made up of a mixture of protons and
neutrons despite the repulsive electrostatic forces between protons. In fact, the nuclear energy
structure can be explained by considering the following principal forces between the
nucleons:
The binding energy of nucleons can be considered similarly to the principles presented for
the peripheral electrons. The major difference is the magnitude of this binding energy that is of
the order of 1 MeV per nucleon, i.e. about 10
times the binding energy of the peripheral
electrons. This binding energy is obviously linked to the content of the nucleus, and it is
the result of the combination of the different forces described above. Figure 2.2 shows the
variation of the mean nuclear binding energy per nucleon as a function of the total number of
nucleons A.
