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Helium is composed of two electrons bound by the electromagnetic force to a nucleus containing two protons along with two neutrons, depending on the isotope, held together by the strong force. Unlike for hydrogen , a closed-form solution to the Schrödinger equation for the helium atom has not been found.
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]
Some stable helium-3 (two protons and one neutron) is produced in fusion reactions from hydrogen, though its estimated abundance in the universe is about 10 −5 relative to helium-4. [ 92 ] Binding energy per nucleon of common isotopes.
Helium-3 (3 He [1] [2] see also helion) is a light, stable isotope of helium with two protons and one neutron. (In contrast, the most common isotope, helium-4 , has two protons and two neutrons.) Helium-3 and protium (ordinary hydrogen ) are the only stable nuclides with more protons than neutrons.
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.
A helium nucleus was presumed to have four protons plus two "nuclear electrons" (electrons bound inside the nucleus) to cancel two charges. At the other end of the periodic table, a nucleus of gold with a mass 197 times that of hydrogen was thought to contain 118 nuclear electrons in the nucleus to give it a residual charge of +79, consistent ...
[125] [126] Most of the helium in the crust of the Earth (about 99% of the helium from gas wells, as shown by its lower abundance of helium-3) is a product of alpha decay. [ 127 ] There are a few trace atoms on Earth that were not present at the beginning (i.e., not "primordial"), nor are results of radioactive decay.
The term helion is a portmanteau of helium and ion, and in practice refers specifically to the nucleus of the helium-3 isotope, consisting of two protons and one neutron. The nucleus of the other (and far more common) stable isotope of helium, helium-4, consisting of two protons and two neutrons, is called an alpha particle or an alpha for short.