Volume 17: Pages 245-255, 2004
Some Correlations Between Light Nuclear Phenomena and an Extended Nuclear Cluster Model
Peter J. Fimmel
11 Tregenna Place, Gooseberry Hill 6067 Western Australia
The problem of modeling nuclear structure is analyzed by extending the alpha cluster model to include the three‐body mirror nuclei and the deuteron. It is possible to arrange all the nucleons of any nuclide into a set of from one to three of the four cluster types according to two principles: (1) bound nucleons tend to form the alpha cluster and (2) nucleon excess is conserved by the three‐body mirror clusters. In this analysis each excess neutron forms a triton and each protonrich, odd‐neutron nuclide forms one 3He. Within the series of isotopes for each element, the nuclear structure is discrete and reactive; the addition or removal of a single neutron changes its set of constituent clusters. The mass range of the isotopes of any element is defined by the model to be Z + 1 ≤A ≥ 3Z. The model correlates structure with a number of light nuclear phenomena, including the β decay potential and the neutron emission decay mode. The recently observed islands of particle stability beyond the neutron drip‐line of fluorine, neon, and sodium are analyzed as the highest‐mass isotope of each of those elements coupled to four neutrons, which is interpreted as the bound analogue of the recently observed free tetraneutron.
Keywords: nuclear structure, discrete, cluster, light nuclear correlations
Received: April 15, 2004; Published online: December 15, 2008