Monday, June 28, 2021

Eggs of helium-4

Carbon-12 seems more interesting than I'd thought: with six protons and six neutrons, this divides out to three sets of p2n2. That is: each nucleus is an egg with three helium-4 nuclei in it. The strong force keeps them bound such that the weak force doesn't act; this isn't 14C. And the protons, by electromagnetism, present a united face to the chemists. But - the physicists tell us - with sufficient added energy, meaning gamma-rays, these helium nuclei will disassociate into alpha-particles.

The term for nuclei so bound together, before they all fling apart, is Condensed State. The (3α) state in excited carbon-12 is "Hoyle State". Neutron-stars also present a condensed-state to the universe.

This is in our notice because, a fortnight ago, Osaka University found Neon-20 doing the same thing. It theoretically got five helium-nuclei but those nuclei hadn't been liberated in the lab yet. This, the Osakans have now done. It's 5α condensed-state.

I don't believe this is Earthly feasible under other combinations of proton and neutron; I think the egg has to be holding sub-particles at an integer multiple. As to those sub-particles: without such proton/neutron parity, we simply don't get stable isotopes. Beryllium-6, anyone? LOL. So, not for mining Helium-3. And getting deuterium out of a helium nucleus ain't happenin' neever.

This being filed under "alchemy" the energy requirements are prohibitive for, say, turning overly-abundant carbon into valuable helium. So, nobody is suggesting to replace Venus' atmosphere to a helium / oxygen mix.

Although... what about oxygen-16? I'd wonder if the issue here was oxygen's chemistry, making it a pain to work with. Neon is (mostly) inert, and carbon at least can be kept in a diamond lattice. Hot oxygen will corrode your equipment or simply burn it.

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