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The helium atom. Depicted are the nucleus (pink) and the electron cloud distribution (black). The nucleus (upper right) in helium-4 is in reality spherically symmetric and closely resembles the electron cloud, although for more complicated nuclei this is not always the case. Helium-4 (4 He) is a stable isotope of the element helium.
The unusual stability of the helium-4 nucleus is also important cosmologically: ... (3 parts hydrogen to 1 part helium-4 by mass), with nearly all the neutrons in the ...
Helium-2, 2 He, is extremely unstable. Its nucleus, a diproton, consists of two protons with no neutrons.According to theoretical calculations, it would be much more stable (but still β + decay to deuterium) if the strong force were 2% greater. [18]
The Schrodinger equation for helium, like that of hydrogen, can be solved to accuracies equivalent to the most precise experimental values. Among the additional effects that must be included for these high accuracies include: [12] [13] mass polarization: the dynamics of nucleus around the atomic center of mass. relativity: Breit-Pauli corrections
the total rest mass on the two helium-nuclei = 2 × 4.0026 = 8.0052 u; missing rest mass = 8.029 – 8.0052 = 0.0238 atomic mass units. In a nuclear reaction, the total (relativistic) energy is conserved. The "missing" rest mass must therefore reappear as kinetic energy released in the reaction; its source is the nuclear binding energy.
Alpha decay or α-decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle (helium nucleus) and thereby transforms or "decays" into a different atomic nucleus, with a mass number that is reduced by four and an atomic number that is reduced by two.
An important property of helium-3, which distinguishes it from the more common helium-4, is that its nucleus is a fermion since it contains an odd number of spin 1 ⁄ 2 particles. Helium-4 nuclei are bosons, containing an even number of spin 1 ⁄ 2 particles. This is a direct result of the addition rules for quantized angular momentum.
Almost all of the mass of an atom is located in the nucleus, with a very small contribution from the electron cloud. Protons and neutrons are bound together to form a nucleus by the nuclear force. The diameter of the nucleus is in the range of 1.70 fm (1.70 × 10 −15 m [7]) for hydrogen (the diameter of a single proton) to about 11.7 fm for ...