A general decay form and absolute nuclear stability
Abstract
A nucleus is conventionally called stable when no decay has been observed. We replace this phenomenological definition with a criterion based on conservation laws. For this purpose, we formulate a general decay form (GDF) for finite charge-neutral nuclear systems that includes all possible final configurations. A nucleus is absolutely stable if no allowed configuration has lower mass. A global search over all nuclei with measured atomic masses yields 84 absolutely stable nuclei.Besides the criterion of absolute stability, we introduce a dimensionless decay-accessibility entropy SGDF as a coarse-grained measure of the relative accessibility of GDF-allowed decay channels. We rank all naturally occurring isotopes according to their maximum SGDF values, identify their favored decay modes, and estimate the corresponding partial half-lives. We further identify promising candidates for natural alpha and two-neutrino double-beta decays. The resulting framework also provides a nuclear-scale perspective on the far-future evolution of matter, in which nuclear decay drives matter toward combinations of these 84 absolutely stable nuclei before still slower processes of matter evolution. These findings extend the conventional phenomenological stable-radioactive classification to a conservation-law-based framework for nuclear stability and provide a systematic guide for future rare-decay searches.
Related
- Nuclear decay networks reveal stability patterns in superheavy nuclei
- Joint Amplitude-Phase Optimization of Broadband Lasers Raises Absolute Two-Plasmon-Decay Thresholds Above Coherence-Time Predictions
- Additional ionization during nuclear β± decay in atomic systems
- Color screening versus thermal decay as the mechanism of Υ suppression in high energy nuclear collisions
- Singular observation of shape and spin hindrance in metastable nuclear decay of 197Au
BibTeX
@misc{zhang2026general,
title = {{A general decay form and absolute nuclear stability}},
author = {Wenqiang Zhang and Chong Qi},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.16550},
eprint = {2609.16550},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16550},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - A general decay form and absolute nuclear stability
AU - Wenqiang Zhang
AU - Chong Qi
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/16
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.16550
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.16550
AB - A nucleus is conventionally called stable when no decay has been observed. We replace this phenomenological definition with a criterion based on conservation laws. For this purpose, we formulate a general decay form (GDF) for finite charge-neutral nuclear systems that includes all possible final configurations. A nucleus is absolutely stable if no allowed configuration has lower mass. A global search over all nuclei with measured atomic masses yields 84 absolutely stable nuclei.Besides the criterion of absolute stability, we introduce a dimensionless decay-accessibility entropy SGDF as a coarse-grained measure of the relative accessibility of GDF-allowed decay channels. We rank all naturally occurring isotopes according to their maximum SGDF values, identify their favored decay modes, and estimate the corresponding partial half-lives. We further identify promising candidates for natural alpha and two-neutrino double-beta decays. The resulting framework also provides a nuclear-scale perspective on the far-future evolution of matter, in which nuclear decay drives matter toward combinations of these 84 absolutely stable nuclei before still slower processes of matter evolution. These findings extend the conventional phenomenological stable-radioactive classification to a conservation-law-based framework for nuclear stability and provide a systematic guide for future rare-decay searches.
ER -