I have been making observations and generating theories concerning nucleon
stability conditions that present themselves with the addition of a proton or
neutron to an existing stable element and have an interesting new discovery to
report. It consists of an extension to the empirical data described earlier.
My theory concerns nucleon behavior and I happened to consider an interesting
extension. The number zero is a valid number of nucleons that is considered
stable so I started at that condition and added either a neutron or proton as
in the previous postings. And, as before one of the additions results in a
stable configuration and the other does not. A single proton is the well known
and understood hydrogen nucleus. A single neutron, which is the other result,
should not be stable according to the rule I discovered and in fact is not.
Not only that, but the neutron decays by beta decay into the first case which
is a proton as in all of the other nucleons that I analyzed. The beta decay
results in the release of a neutrino as in all the other cases along with the
proton and electron.
This latest observation adds support to my earlier conclusion that there can be
no adjacent non radioactive elements with a particular nucleon count. The
finite binding energy difference between equal count nucleon combinations seems
to always drive a single beta decay event in the direction which maximizes the
binding energy. This leads to local minimums so that another non adjacent
element of the same nucleon count can be stable. My review of a nuclide table
demonstrates two such local minimums are common. I did not note any
situations where more than two equal nucleon count elements were stable, but
the tendency to reach stability is evident by the decay times which are related
to the binding energy differences.
I have not noted any strong hints of binding energy quantization effects since
there are no observed adjacent stable elements of the same nucleon count to
suggest this.
Dave
