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According to the whole number rule proposed by Francis Aston, the mass of an isotope is roughly, but not exactly, its mass number A (Z + N) times an atomic mass unit (u), plus or minus binding energy discrepancy – atomic mass unit being the modern approximation for "mass of a proton, neutron, or hydrogen atom".
The negatively charged electron has a mass of about 1 / 1836 of that of a hydrogen atom. The remainder of the hydrogen atom's mass comes from the positively charged proton. The atomic number of an element is the number of protons in its nucleus. Neutrons are neutral particles having a mass slightly greater than that of the proton.
If n is much larger than Z (or N), this increases roughly like n Z. Practically, this number becomes so large that every computation is impossible for A=N+Z larger than 8. To obviate this difficulty, the space of possible single-particle states is divided into core and valence, by analogy with chemistry (see core electron and valence electron ...
The attraction of low-energy free protons to any electrons present in normal matter (such as the electrons in normal atoms) causes free protons to stop and to form a new chemical bond with an atom. Such a bond happens at any sufficiently "cold" temperature (that is, comparable to temperatures at the surface of the Sun) and with any type of atom.
Removal of the electron gives a cation (left), whereas the addition of an electron gives an anion (right). The hydrogen anion, with its loosely held two-electron cloud, has a larger radius than the neutral atom, which in turn is much larger than the bare proton of the cation. Hydrogen forms the only charge-+1 cation that has no electrons, but ...
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 rp-process (rapid proton) involves the rapid absorption of free protons as well as neutrons, but its role and its existence are less certain. Explosive nucleosynthesis occurs too rapidly for radioactive decay to decrease the number of neutrons, so that many abundant isotopes with equal and even numbers of protons and neutrons are ...
The greater the number of protons, the more neutrons are required to stabilize a nuclide; nuclides with larger values for Z require an even larger number of neutrons, N > Z, to be stable. The valley of stability is formed by the negative of binding energy, the binding energy being the energy required to break apart the nuclide into its proton ...