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Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory that describes the behavior of nature at and below the scale of atoms. [2]: 1.1 It is the foundation of all quantum physics, which includes quantum chemistry, quantum field theory, quantum technology, and quantum information science.
In quantum chemistry, the quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), sometimes referred to as atoms in molecules (AIM), is a model of molecular and condensed matter electronic systems (such as crystals) in which the principal objects of molecular structure - atoms and bonds - are natural expressions of a system's observable electron density distribution function.
The current theoretical model of the atom involves a dense nucleus surrounded by a probabilistic "cloud" of electrons. Atomic theory is the scientific theory that matter is composed of particles called atoms. The definition of the word "atom" has changed over the years in response to scientific discoveries.
Philosophical atomism is a reductive argument, proposing not only that everything is composed of atoms and void, but that nothing they compose really exists: the only things that really exist are atoms ricocheting off each other mechanistically in an otherwise empty void.
Given a measurable space (,) and a measure on that space, a set in is called an atom if > and for any measurable subset , either () = or () = (). [ 1 ] The equivalence class of A {\displaystyle A} is defined by [ A ] := { B ∈ Σ : μ ( A Δ B ) = 0 } , {\displaystyle [A]:=\{B\in \Sigma :\mu (A\Delta B)=0\},} where Δ {\displaystyle \Delta ...
If an atom has more electrons than protons, then it has an overall negative charge and is called a negative ion (or anion). Conversely, if it has more protons than electrons, it has a positive charge and is called a positive ion (or cation). The electrons of an atom are attracted to the protons in an atomic nucleus by the electromagnetic force.
The adoption of the term "nucleus" to atomic theory, however, was not immediate. In 1916, for example, Gilbert N. Lewis stated, in his famous article The Atom and the Molecule, that "the atom is composed of the kernel and an outer atom or shell." [12] Similarly, the term kern meaning kernel is used for nucleus in German and Dutch.
In the mathematical field of order theory, an element a of a partially ordered set with least element 0 is an atom if 0 < a and there is no x such that 0 < x < a. Equivalently, one may define an atom to be an element that is minimal among the non-zero elements, or alternatively an element that covers the least element 0 .