Ternary fission is a nuclear reaction in which a heavy nucleus splits into three smaller nuclei, along with the release of energy and neutrons. This process is less common than the more widely known binary fission, where a nucleus splits into two smaller nuclei. In ternary fission, the original heavy nucleus—such as uranium-235 or plutonium-239—undergoes an instability that allows it to split into three fragments.
Unification of theories in physics refers to the effort to formulate a single theoretical framework that can explain and connect different physical phenomena and principles under a cohesive set of laws. The goal of unification is to reduce the complexity of various theories by showing that they are manifestations of a more fundamental underlying principle or theory.
The vector potential is a mathematical concept used primarily in the fields of electromagnetism and fluid dynamics.
The virial theorem is a powerful result in classical mechanics and astrophysics, particularly useful for systems of particles bound by forces, such as stars in a galaxy or gas molecules in a container. It relates the average total kinetic energy of a system to its average total potential energy.
Wave function collapse is a key concept in quantum mechanics that describes the process by which a quantum system transitions from a superposition of states to a single state when a measurement is made. In quantum mechanics, particles such as electrons exist in a superposition of multiple possible states, each with a certain probability. The wave function is a mathematical function that encodes all the information about the system and describes these probabilities.