Nucleonics Matrix

Nuclear Stability

By Alain Lareau

After hydrogen and helium the most plentiful element in the cosmos is Oxygen.


Atomic
Number
NameSymbol
1HydrogenH
2HeliumHe
3LithiumLi
4BerylliumBe
5BoronB
6CarbonC
7NitrogenN
8OxygenO


For the past several decades I have been confronted by the nature of Nuclear Stability and the pattern of proton-neutron ratios of various elemental isotopes. Just recently(2001) while digesting reports of radio-activity distribution in nature and evaluating data of radio-active decay of various waste products from the nuclear power industry I was prompted to take review of this topic again. I mention now that from the start I made reference to the Moon-Hecht Model which proved helpful early on but I abandoned midway in wrestling out a problem or two . The question at hand is really a very simple one. Why is a particular combination of protons and neutrons as an atomic nucleus more or less stable than another, and corollary, why is one particular type of decay favored by nature?
I consider some questions not to be answered sufficiently in the present day so here I elaborate concepts which I hope will explain phenomena in a more coherent way with intent that an increase in mankind's ability to effect nature for the good of all is to be had soon. I will start in a most basic level and work to the more complicated as we proceed. I will try to elaborate the blind alleys as well as the benchmarks.


Here are two of the charts we used on a previous page, we want to expand these charts to include all isobars to sixteen. We will build the chart in increments.


n =
p-2 p-1p p+1p+2
  H 1   n  
   H 2   
  He 3   H 3  
   He 4   


n = p-2 n = p-1 n = p n = p+1 n = p+2
  H 001
99.985%

Stable
  n  
    H 002
0.015%

Stable
   
  He 003
0.000137%

Stable
  H 003

12.33 yr
 
Li 004

  He 004
99.999863%

Stable
  H 004


There are two bits of data we need for each of the six new elements we wish to add into these tables.
  1. How many isotopes of this element are stable
  2. Which isotope of that element is the most common
We can find this information easily at a web site
produced by Yinon Bentor at
Periodic Table with Neutrons at Chemical Elements.com

Here is his chart that I find very helpful. The values posted in the element cells are the neutron number for the most common isotope for that element.

  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
1 H He
0 2
2 Li Be B C N O F Ne
4 5 6 6 7 8 10 10
3 Na Mg Al Si P S Cl Ar
12 12 14 14 16 16 18 22
4 K Ca Sc Ti V Cr Mn Fe Co Ni Cu Zn Ga Ge As Se Br Kr
20 20 24 26 28 28 30 30 32 31 35 35 39 41 42 45 45 48
5 Rb Sr Y Zr Nb Mo Tc Ru Rh Pd Ag Cd In Sn Sb Te I Xe
48 50 50 51 52 54 55 57 58 60 61 64 66 69 71 76 74 77
6 Cs Ba * Hf Ta W Re Os Ir Pt Au Hg Tl Pb Bi Po At Rn
78 81 106 108 110 111 114 115 117 118 121 123 125 126 125 125 136
7 Fr Ra ** Rf Db Sg Bh Hs Mt Uun Uuu Uub
136 138 157 157 157 155 157 157 159 161 165
* La Ce Pr Nd Pm Sm Eu Gd Tb Dy Ho Er Tm Yb Lu
82 82 82 84 84 88 89 93 94 97 98 99 100 103 104
** Ac Th Pa U Np Pu Am Cm Bk Cf Es Fm Md No Lr
138 142 140 146 144 150 148 151 150 153 153 157 157 157 159


The above table is very useful as a quick reference but if you want real hard data for physics use this link and see the folks at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
Now for the next chart we will first add Oxygen-16


n =
p-2 p-1p p+1p+2
  H 1   n  
   H 2   
  He 3   H 3  
   He 4   
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
       
   O 16   


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