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Isotope table in compact form with half-lives and structure
Isotope table in compact form with half-lives
Isotope table in compact form with decay mode
Isotope table in compact form with energy per baryon
Isotope table in medium form with energy per baryon
The isotope table below shows isotopes of the chemical elements, including all known isotopes (as of 8/2009). They are arranged with increasing atomic weight from upper to lower and increasing neutron surfeit from left to right.
Cell color denotes the energy per baryon of each isotope. Energy is calculated assuming the Bohr model (that is, with a quadratic progression for kinetic energy) subtracting the energy of the electrons from the energy of the isotope to give the energy of the nucleus. Since at least 98% of the energy of the electrons is mass energy until at least Darmstadium, this is a sufficient approximation for this purpose. If you’ve scrolled so the color legend is not in view, allowing your cursor to dwell over a cell will cause a pop-up text box to indicate that isotope’s energy and half-life. If a cell has an isomer, dwelling over it will also disclose the half-life of the most stable nuclear isomer state.
A black border is added to the isotope with the lowest energy per baryon for an element. An orange border is added for the isotope with the lowest energy per baryon for an element with the opposite parity as the overall lowest (normally, the lowest energy for an isotope with an odd number of neutrons), and a white border is added for the lowest energy per baryon currently known where it is NOT the lowest overall. The lowest energy for a baryon count overall has a blue band (so Cerium 140 has a blue band as it is the lowest energy isotope with 140 baryons, but Cerium 134 has the black band since it has the least per baryon among the isotopes of Cerium). Long lasting isotopes with z of 2 less than a blue-banded isotope get a green band. On ties (+/- 1 KeV), both isotopes have a narrower border added. The isotope with the lowest energy per baryon for the row has its element id in bold. Color is generally a smooth progression from bright purple for the highest energy through pink, red, brown, gray, green, and blue at the lowest energy. But to clarify context, green is interrupted by a yellow band (from bright yellow at the lowest energy to pale yellow at the highest) and red is interrupted by a dark brown band and an orange band. Uncertainty is typically under 500 eV, larger uncertainties noted, those over 5 KeV have element shown in italics. It should be noted, lowest energy is not equivalent to most stable. Pu238 has the least energy among the 238 baryon counts, but U238 is most stable. In some cases the lowest energy nucleus can absorb an electron and become a more stable case (Ca41 for instance).
This table also has information about structure. There are ! in cells for the structure with the least surface for a baryon count, red for standard complete structure and pink for derived structures (black for cases where dipole is high but a solution was generated anyway, and orange for cases where the dipole hasn’t yet been calculated on very large nuclei). Clicking on these brings up the Google Sketchup of the solution, with a link from there to a structure detail page. In some cases, especially with high baryon counts, solutions for cases with more than the minimum surface are more valuable. These have green * which provide links for those solutions. Definitionally, there are nearly infinite solutions worse than best fit, so the special interest link should not be treated as unique. Other solutions with the same surface at those points will have similar eccentricity. At Dirac’s limit, the surface of the 1s electrons are passing through the center of the nucleus, so no isotope can form. Near that point, the nucleus has little room for safety. z=133 through 137 are highlighted in darkening shades of grey. Aside from the possibilities of clathrate or muonic solutions, no isotopes with z>134 are particularly likely.