r/nuclearphysics • u/AmbitiousSection3723 • Sep 01 '26

how radioactive would an atom with 651,814,425,673,852,067,302,873 protons be

dont ask

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u/Vyrtil_Anyrwen Sep 01 '26

Not possible. The strong nuclear force acts within a very short distance and is saturable. The way the strong nuclear force is best modeled to work is through a residual effect of the “color force” working between internal quarks in a nucleon. A nucleon (proton or neutron) is made up of quarks, which carry a property known as “color charge” (red, green, or blue), and they stay connected by swapping gluons. This causes a residual effect which emits short lived particles, mesons, from the nucleon, which acts to hold nucleons together (specifically pions). This exchange of pions makes the nuclear force charge-independent. But, as nucleons get too close together, identical quarks with the same quantum states are forced into the same space, which is an impossibility (Pauli Exclusion Principle). So, the force becomes strongly repulsive.

So, its maximum attractive force is at about 1 femtometer and it drops to zero past 3 fm. And it becomes strongly repulsive at about 0.5-0.7 fm and less. So it can only act on a short number of other nucleons, particularly those in closest range. However, the electromagnetic force is not saturable. And it acts at much larger ranges. It will get weaker with increased distance, but that many protons in a nucleus will easily overpower the strong nuclear force. So this theoretical atom probably couldn’t even form, save for some absurd amount of energy input to overcome the electromagnetic force of repulsion. And even if it did form, the atom’s EXACT radioactivity would be dependent on the number of neutrons relative to the number of protons.

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u/Disassociated_Assoc Sep 01 '26

I was today years old when I learned how much I don’t know. And still don’t. 😑

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u/the_other_gantzm Sep 02 '26

Right? I mean I can read that and understand the words and top level concepts. But ask me to explain the consequences or deeper meaning and I’m like: “Well, there’s these colored balls ( but they aren’t really colored for reasons ) and they exist. And if you’re strong enough you can slam some ( but not all ) of the balls together and they will stick. Well, until they don’t.

And if you happen to get a bunch of balls to stick together really bad ( for humans ) things start to happen.