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  2. Decay chain - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_chain

    v. t. e. In nuclear science, the decay chain refers to a series of radioactive decays of different radioactive decay products as a sequential series of transformations. It is also known as a "radioactive cascade". The typical radioisotope does not decay directly to a stable state, but rather it decays to another radioisotope.

  3. Radioactive decay - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radioactive_decay

    v. t. e. Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is considered radioactive. Three of the most common types of decay are alpha, beta, and gamma decay.

  4. Particle decay - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Particle_decay

    Particle decay. In particle physics, particle decay is the spontaneous process of one unstable subatomic particle transforming into multiple other particles. The particles created in this process (the final state) must each be less massive than the original, although the total mass of the system must be conserved.

  5. Alpha decay - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_decay

    t. e. Alpha decay or α-decay is a type of radioactive decay in which an atomic nucleus emits an alpha particle ( helium nucleus) and thereby transforms or "decays" into a different atomic nucleus, with a mass number that is reduced by four and an atomic number that is reduced by two. An alpha particle is identical to the nucleus of a helium-4 ...

  6. Exponential decay - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exponential_decay

    Exponential decay is a scalar multiple of the exponential distribution (i.e. the individual lifetime of each object is exponentially distributed), which has a well-known expected value. We can compute it here using integration by parts .

  7. Free neutron decay - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_neutron_decay

    For the free neutron, the decay energy for this process (based on the rest masses of the neutron, proton and electron) is 0.782 343 MeV. That is the difference between the rest mass of the neutron and the sum of the rest masses of the products. That difference has to be carried away as kinetic energy.

  8. Contronym - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contronym

    Contronym. A contronym, contranym or autantonym [1] is a word with two meanings that are opposite each other. For example, the word cleave can mean "to cut apart" or "to bind together". This feature is also called enantiosemy, [2] [3] enantionymy ( enantio- means "opposite"), antilogy or autantonymy.

  9. Bateman equation - Wikipedia

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bateman_equation

    In nuclear physics, the Bateman equation is a mathematical model describing abundances and activities in a decay chain as a function of time, based on the decay rates and initial abundances. The model was formulated by Ernest Rutherford in 1905 [1] and the analytical solution was provided by Harry Bateman in 1910. [2]