REGULARITIES INVOLVING69He AND49He AND THEIR POSSIBLE IMPLICATIONS FOR NUCLEAR STRUCTURE

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Abstract
An examination of several types of evidence (systematics of stable isotopes, relative abundances of isotopes, energies of excited states, neutron and proton separation energies, mass excess and binding energy, and the half-lives of long-lived heavy alpha-active nuclei) reveals regularities associated with increases in the 5 2He sub-units as well as the more familiar 4 2He (alpha-particle) sub-unit. Several 5 2He regularities involve seven, but never more, participants. This corresponds to a total range of 36A and 12Z. A consideration of the regularities leads to the suggestion that if clusters occur on the nuclear surface—or perhaps within the structure—both 5 2He and 5 2He should be considered as possible clusters. On the basis of this assumption, a threefold division of nuclei with respect to Z and N is suggested: (i) The 4 2He region. Up to Z = N = 20 (ii) The transition region. Between Z = N = 20 and N = 50 (iii) The 5 2He region. N = 50 to N = 152. If it is assumed that heavy nuclei (N > 50) of a given type are ‘built’ by adding 5 2He clusters to the nuclear surface, the rate of increase of N-Z is a little too rapid for stability to be maintained over a large range of Z and an examination of the 5 2He regularities leads to the suggestion that one function of N = 82 and certain other significant neutron numbers may be to reduce neutron excess.

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