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( Nuclear reaction)
In nuclear physics, a nuclear reaction is the process in which two nuclei or nuclear particles collide to produce products different from the initial particles. In principle a reaction can involve more than two particles colliding, but because the probability of three or more nuclei to meet at the same time at the same place is much less than for two nuclei, such an event is exceptionally rare. While the transformation is spontaneous in the case of radioactive decay, it is initiated by a particle in the case of a nuclear reaction. If the particles collide and separate without changing, the process is called an elastic collision rather than a reaction. In the symbolic figure shown to the right, 63Li and deuterium react to form the highly excited intermediate nucleus 84Be which then decays immediately into two alpha particles. Protons are symbolically represented by red spheres, and neutrons by blue spheres. To make the sums correct, the second nucleus to the right must have atomic number 2 and mass number 4; it is therefore also Helium-4. The complete equation therefore reads or more simply
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