Symbols
D - Usually used in front of a quantity to mean difference
a - alpha particles, the nuclei of helium, He
b or b– - beta particles, high speed electrons emitted by nuclei
b+ - positron, also represented by e+
d - Symbol for delta rays, electrons liberated by alpha particles
X– & X+ - Cascade particles (baryons) with mass ~1.317 GeV
g - Gamma rays, high energy photons emitted by nuclei
L - Lambda particle, a baryon
l - lambda, wavelength
l - decay constant
m - muon
m + and m – - positive and negative muions
mB - Bohr magneton
mN - nuclear magneton
n - frequency used in (E = h n)
- also used for neutrino
ne, nm and nt - electron neutrino and muon neutrino and tau neutrino
- antineutrino
e, m and t - electron antineutrino, muon antineutrino and tau antineutrino
n (= 1/l) - wave number, number of waves per unit length
p or Dp - parity and change of parity
p+, p–, p0 - positive, negative, and neutral pions
S–, S0, & S+- Sigma particles (baryons) with mass ~1.192 GeV
s - cross section in general
sc - thermal neutron capture cross section
sf - thermal neutron fission cross section
A - Angstrom, a unit 10-10 m, for atomic radius etc
A - Radioactivity
Ao - Radioactivity at t = 0
AECL - Atomic Energy of Canada Limited
AHR - Aqueous homogeneous reactor
a - absorption coefficient
a - acceleration, a vector
BE - Binding energy
BEav - Average binding energy
BNL - Brookhaven National Laboratories
BWR - Boiling water reactor
Bq - Becquerel, unit for radioactivity
b - The bottom quark
- also as barn of cross section, 10-28 m2
C - The Coulomb constant = (4pe)–1 = 8.99x109 N m2 c-2
CANDU - CANadian Deuterium Uranium reactor
CERN - European Center for Nuclear Research
CN - central nervous system
CPRP - Civilian Power Reactor Program
CTF - Controlled thermonuclear fusion
Ci - Curie
c - The charm quark
c - Speed of light, 2.997925x108 m s–1
D - Deuterium, and isotope of hydrogen H
DESY - Deutsches Elektronen Synchrotron Laboratory
DNA - deoxyribonucleic acid
d - The down quark
dps - disintegration per second for decay rate
E - Energy, a quantity sometimes subscripts are added to specify the type of energy,
EDJ - Electric transition
EC - electron capture
e - electron
e+ or b+ - positron, antiparticle of electron.
eV - electron volt
F , F - force, a vector when bold and scalar when not bold
FBR - Fast breeder reactor
f t - Comparative half life
GeV - Giga-electron volt, 1x109 eV
GCR - Gas-cooled power reactor
GI - Gastrointestinal system
HWR - Heavy wter moderated reactor
HILAC - Heavyion linear accelerator
h - Planck constant
i - current
IT - isomeric transition
J - Total quantum momentum quantum number of a nucleus
JET - Joint European Torus
j - Total quantum momentum quantum number
K+, K0, and K– - Kaons, charged and neutral
k - the Boltzmann constant, (1.38062 x 1023 J/deg)
LBL - Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
LD - lethal dose
l - orbital quantum number
M - Mass number (M = N + Z)
MDJ - Magnetic transition
m - Meter, a unit of length
m - Mass or relativistic mass, a quantity
ME - Mass excess
MeV - Million electron volt
me - mass of electron
mj - The projection of the combined angular momentum
mo - Rest mass
N - Number of neutrons (N = M - Z)
N - The number of nuclei (in N = No e-l t) for radioactive decay kinetics
- Number of neutrons for the consideration of nucleons
NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCRP - The (American) National Council of Radiation Protection
NRC - National Research Council of Canada
Na - The number of alpha particles
Nb - The number of beta particles
No - The number of nuclei (in N = No e-l t) at t = 0
n and - neutron
n - any integer including principal quantum number
OCPR - Organic-cooled power reactor
OSRD - Office of Scientific Research and Development
P - power, rate of energy transfer
PLT - Princeton Large Torus
PWR - Pressurized water reactor
p and - proton and antiproton
p - linear momentum (= m v)
Q - energy of nuclear reaction
- also used as quality factor
QCD - Quantum chromodynamics
q - quantity of heat
R - Radius
- also used for electric resistance in units of ohm
- Roentgen, a dosage unit for radiation
RBMK - Soviet graphite-moderated nuclear reactor
SIL - Sound intensity level measured in decibel (dB)
SLAC - Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
SM - Standard model
SPEAR - Stanford Positron Electron Asymmetric Rings
s - Second, a unit of time
- also the strange quark
s - Spin quantum number
- also as distance as a scalar quantity
T - Tritium, an isotope of hydrogen H
TFTR - Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor
TeV - Terra electron volt (1012 eV)
t - time
t½ - half-life
V - volt, a unit of electric potential
v - velocity
W+, W0, and W– - The weak force carriers
x - a parameter for distance or coordinate
Z - Atomic number or number of protons in a nucleus
ZEEP - zero-energy experimental pile
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