photons

[MedGrl@2022]

So I thought only electrons could absorb photons or release them according to the Bohr's atom model. Now all of a sudden alpha particles and nucleus are emitting photons in my practice MCATs (EK H1 exam and AAMC 8). Could someone help me out? I am confused. So nucleus and other parts of an atom are capable of emitting photons? Is it because photons the same as gamma rays? Thus, are all these atom particles... with the exception of the electron undergoing some type of decay in order to release these photons?

Thank you!

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[NuttyEngDude]

So I thought only electrons could absorb photons or release them according to the Bohr's atom model. Now all of a sudden alpha particles and nucleus are emitting photons in my practice MCATs (EK H1 exam and AAMC 8). Could someone help me out? I am confused. So nucleus and other parts of an atom are capable of emitting photons? Is it because photons the same as gamma rays? Thus, are all these atom particles... with the exception of the electron undergoing some type of decay in order to release these photons?

Thank you!

Yeah I interpreted it this way and photons are emitted as gamma rays.

search for "gamma rays" in this which may help: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_binding_energy

You might want to amend your title to say AAMC8 question number so it's not a spoiler 😛

 

[eschrodinger]

Photons are not always equivalent to gamma rays (but in this example they are); you can broadly think of them as quantized packets of electromagnetic radiation that indicate the wavelength/frequency of light. Photons with frequencies typically above 10^19 Hz classify as gamma radiation. Hence, emission with frequencies greater than 10^19 Hz will produce gamma rays.

When the MCAT says that alpha particles/atom are emitting photons, what it means is that the atom is absorbing energy (absorbing photons), causing excitation (i.e. electron is getting excited to a higher energy level), and emission is occurring (relaxation to lower energy level, this may be the closest energy level to the nucleus, but not always). At any rate, the electron needs to get closer to the nucleus for emission to occur. This is probably why the passage states that emission comes from the "nucleus". Additionally, any particle can emit photons as long as they are able to absorb them.

 

[mauroz]

Think of photons as packets of electromagnetic energy. So emitting anything on the EM spectrum (eg light, X-rays, gamma rays) is emitted as photons which means that energy is released because the atom went from a higher potential energy to a lower potential energy.