Atoms which have unstable nuclei are radioactive and are called radioisotopes or radionuclides. The change that an unstable nucleus undergoes is called disintegration or decay. When unstable nuclei ...

An unstable nucleus can emit a ‘package’ of two protons and two neutrons, called an alpha particle, to become more stable. Alpha radiation is made up of a stream of alpha particles emitted ...

Neutrons undergo beta decay, resulting in the formation of proton and high-energy electron, which give rise to a daughter nucleus with the same mass as the parent and a higher atomic number. Why are ...

When taking these magic combinations into account, theoretical works dating back to the 1960s predict an island of stability in the sea of unstable ... lived superheavy nucleus known so far ...