Alpha nuclide

 An alpha nuclide is a nuclide that consists of an integer number of alpha particles. Alpha nuclides have equal, even numbers of protons and neutrons; they are important in stellar nucleosynthesis since the energetic environment within stars is amenable to fusion of alpha particles into heavier nuclei.^[1][2] Stable alpha nuclides, and stable decay products of radioactive alpha nuclides, are some of the most common metals in the universe.

Alpha nuclide is also shorthand for alpha radionuclide, referring to those radioactive isotopes that undergo alpha decay and thereby emit alpha particles.^[3]

List of alpha nuclidesEdit

Alpha number	nuclide	Stable/radioactive	decay mode	half-life[4]	product(s) of decay (bold is stable)	notes
1	4 2He	Stable
2	8 4Be	Radioactive	α	8.19(37)×10−17 s	4 2He
3	12 6C	Stable
4	16 8O	Stable
5	20 10Ne	Stable
6	24 12Mg	Stable
7	28 14Si	Stable
8	32 16S	Stable
9	36 18Ar	Observationally Stable
10	40 20Ca	Observationally Stable
11	44 22Ti	Radioactive	EC	60.0(11) y	44 21Sc  → 44 20Ca
12	48 24Cr	Radioactive	β+	21.56(3) h	48 23V  → 48 22Ti
13	52 26Fe	Radioactive	β+	8.275(8) h	52m 25Mn  → 52 24Cr
14	56 28Ni	Radioactive	β+	6.075(10) d	56 27Co  → 56 26Fe
15	60 30Zn	Radioactive	β+	2.38(5) min	60 29Cu  → 60 28Ni

The nuclear binding energy of alpha nuclides heavier than zinc-60 (beginning with germanium-64) is too large for them be formed by fusion processes. As of 2018, the heaviest known alpha nuclide is xenon-108.^[5]

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article  Metasyntactic variable, which is released under the  Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.