Atom

Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements and the fundamental building blocks of
matter. An atom consists of a nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an
electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished from
each other by the number of protons that are in their atoms. For example, any atom that contains
11 protons is sodium, and any atom that contains 29 protons is copper. Atoms with the same
number of protons but a different number of neutrons are called isotopes of the same element.

Atoms are extremely small, typically around 100 picometers across. A human hair is about a
million carbon atoms wide. Atoms are smaller than the shortest wavelength of visible light,
which means humans cannot see atoms with conventional microscopes. They are so small that
accurately predicting their behavior using classical physics is not possible due to quantum
effects.

More than 99.94% of an atom's mass is in the nucleus.[1] Protons have a positive electric charge
and neutrons have no charge, so the nucleus is positively charged. The electrons are negatively
charged, and this opposing charge is what binds them to the nucleus. If the numbers of protons
and electrons are equal, as they normally are, then the atom is electrically neutral as a whole. A
charged atom is called an ion. If an atom has more electrons than protons, then it has an overall
negative charge and is called a negative ion (or anion). Conversely, if it has more protons than
electrons, it has a positive charge and is called a positive ion (or cation).

The electrons of an atom are attracted to the protons in an atomic nucleus by the
electromagnetic force. The protons and neutrons in the nucleus are attracted to each other by
the nuclear force. This force is usually stronger than the electromagnetic force that repels the
positively charged protons from one another. Under certain circumstances, the repelling
electromagnetic force becomes stronger than the nuclear force. In this case, the nucleus splits
and leaves behind different elements. This is a form of nuclear decay.

Atoms can attach to one or more other atoms by chemical bonds to form chemical compounds
such as molecules or crystals. The ability of atoms to attach and detach from each other is
responsible for most of the physical changes observed in nature. Chemistry is the science that
studies these changes.

History of atomic theory

The word atom is derived from the ancient Greek word Atomos,[a] which means "uncuttable".
However, this ancient idea was based in philosophical reasoning rather than scientific reasoning.
Modern atomic theory is not based on these old concepts.[2][3] In the early 19th century, the
scientist John Dalton found evidence that
Atom
matter really is composed of discrete units,
and so applied the word atom to those units.[4]

Philosophy
The basic idea that matter is made up of tiny
indivisible particles is an old idea that
appeared in many ancient cultures. These
ancient ideas were based on philosophical
reasoning rather than scientific evidence, and
modern atomic theory is not based on these
old concepts.[2] That said, the word atom is
derived from the term used by some ancient
Greek philosophers, atomos ("uncuttable"). An illustration of the helium atom, depicting
the nucleus (pink) and the electron cloud
Dalton's law of multiple proportions distribution (black). The nucleus (upper right)
in helium-4 is in reality spherically symmetric
and closely resembles the electron cloud,
although for more complicated nuclei this is
not always the case. The black bar is one
angstrom (10−10 m or 100 pm).

Classification

Smallest recognized division of a chemical

element

Properties
Various atoms and molecules from A New
System of Chemical Philosophy (John
Mass range 1.67 × 10−27 to
Dalton, 1808)
4.52 × 10−25 kg
In the early 1800s, John Dalton compiled
Electric charge zero (neutral), or ion
experimental data gathered by him and other charge
scientists and discovered a pattern now
Diameter range 62 pm (He) to
known as the "law of multiple proportions". He
520 pm (Cs)
noticed that in any group of chemical
(data page)
compounds which all contain two particular
Components Electrons and a
chemical elements, the amount of Element A
compact nucleus of
per measure of Element B will differ across
protons and
these compounds by ratios of small whole neutrons
numbers. This pattern suggested that each
element combines with other elements in
multiples of a basic unit of weight, with each element having a unit of unique weight. Dalton
decided to call these units "atoms".[5]

For example, there are two types of tin oxide: one is a grey powder that is 88.1% tin and 11.9%
oxygen, and the other is a white powder that is 78.7% tin and 21.3% oxygen. Adjusting these
figures, in the grey powder there is about 13.5 g of oxygen for every 100 g of tin, and in the white
powder there is about 27 g of oxygen for every 100 g of tin. 13.5 and 27 form a ratio of 1:2.
Dalton concluded that in the grey oxide there is one atom of oxygen for every atom of tin, and in
the white oxide there are two atoms of oxygen for every atom of tin (SnO and SnO2).[6][7]

Dalton also analyzed iron oxides. There is one type of iron oxide that is a black powder which is
78.1% iron and 21.9% oxygen; and there is another iron oxide that is a red powder which is 70.4%
iron and 29.6% oxygen. Adjusting these figures, in the black powder there is about 28 g of oxygen
for every 100 g of iron, and in the red powder there is about 42 g of oxygen for every 100 g of
iron. 28 and 42 form a ratio of 2:3. Dalton concluded that in these oxides, for every two atoms of
iron, there are two or three atoms of oxygen respectively. These substances are known today as
iron(II) oxide and iron(III) oxide, and their formulas are FeO and Fe2O3 respectively. Iron(II) oxide's
formula is normally written as FeO, but since it is a crystalline substance we could alternately
write it as Fe2O2, and when we contrast that with Fe2O3, the 2:3 ratio for the oxygen is plain to
see.[8][9]

As a final example: nitrous oxide is 63.3% nitrogen and 36.7% oxygen, nitric oxide is 44.05%
nitrogen and 55.95% oxygen, and nitrogen dioxide is 29.5% nitrogen and 70.5% oxygen. Adjusting
these figures, in nitrous oxide there is 80 g of oxygen for every 140 g of nitrogen, in nitric oxide
there is about 160 g of oxygen for every 140 g of nitrogen, and in nitrogen dioxide there is 320 g
of oxygen for every 140 g of nitrogen. 80, 160, and 320 form a ratio of 1:2:4. The respective
formulas for these oxides are N2O, NO, and NO2.[10][11]

Discovery of the electron

In 1897, J. J. Thomson discovered that cathode rays can be deflected by electric and magnetic
fields, which meant that cathode rays are not a form of light but made of electrically charged
particles, and their charge was negative given the direction the particles were deflected in.[12] He
measured these particles to be 1,700 times lighter than hydrogen (the lightest atom).[13] He
called these new particles corpuscles but they were later renamed electrons since these are the
particles that carry electricity.[14] Thomson also showed that electrons were identical to particles
given off by photoelectric and radioactive materials.[15] Thomson explained that an electric
current is the passing of electrons from one atom to the next, and when there was no current the
electrons embedded themselves in the atoms. This in turn meant that atoms were not indivisible
as scientists thought. The atom was composed of electrons whose negative charge was
balanced out by some source of positive charge to create an electrically neutral atom. Ions,
Thomson explained, must be atoms which have an excess or shortage of electrons.[16]

Discovery of the nucleus

The Rutherford scattering experiments:

The extreme scattering of some alpha
particles suggested the existence of a
nucleus of concentrated charge.

The electrons in the atom logically had to be balanced out by a commensurate amount of
positive charge, but Thomson had no idea where this positive charge came from, so he
tentatively proposed that it was everywhere in the atom, the atom being in the shape of a sphere.
This was the mathematically simplest hypothesis to fit the available evidence, or lack thereof.
Following from this, Thomson imagined that the balance of electrostatic forces would distribute
the electrons throughout the sphere in a more or less even manner.[17] Thomson's model is
popularly known as the plum pudding model, though neither Thomson nor his colleagues used
this analogy.[18] Thomson's model was incomplete, it was unable to predict any other properties
of the elements such as emission spectra and valencies. It was soon rendered obsolete by the
discovery of the atomic nucleus.

Between 1908 and 1913, Ernest Rutherford and his colleagues Hans Geiger and Ernest Marsden
performed a series of experiments in which they bombarded thin foils of metal with a beam of
alpha particles. They did this to measure the scattering patterns of the alpha particles. They
spotted a small number of alpha particles being deflected by angles greater than 90°. This
shouldn't have been possible according to the Thomson model of the atom, whose charges were
too diffuse to produce a sufficiently strong electric field. The deflections should have all been
negligible. Rutherford proposed that the positive charge of the atom is concentrated in a tiny
volume at the center of the atom and that the electrons surround this nucleus in a diffuse cloud.
This nucleus carried almost all of the atom's mass. Only such an intense concentration of
charge, anchored by its high mass, could produce an electric field that could deflect the alpha
particles so strongly.[19]

Bohr model
 The Bohr model of the atom, with an
electron making instantaneous "quantum
leaps" from one orbit to another with gain
or loss of energy. This model of electrons
in orbits is obsolete.

A problem in classical mechanics is that an accelerating charged particle radiates

electromagnetic radiation, causing the particle to lose kinetic energy. Circular motion counts as
acceleration, which means that an electron orbiting a central charge should spiral down into that
nucleus as it loses speed. In 1913, the physicist Niels Bohr proposed a new model in which the
electrons of an atom were assumed to orbit the nucleus but could only do so in a finite set of
orbits, and could jump between these orbits only in discrete changes of energy corresponding to
absorption or radiation of a photon.[20] This quantization was used to explain why the electrons'
orbits are stable and why elements absorb and emit electromagnetic radiation in discrete
spectra.[21] Bohr's model could only predict the emission spectra of hydrogen, not atoms with
more than one electron.

Discovery of protons and neutrons

Back in 1815, William Prout observed that the atomic weights of many elements were multiples
of hydrogen's atomic weight, which is in fact true for all of them if one takes isotopes into
account. In 1898, J. J. Thomson found that the positive charge of a hydrogen ion is equal to the
negative charge of an electron, and these were then the smallest known charged particles.[22]
Thomson later found that the positive charge in an atom is a positive multiple of an electron's
negative charge.[23] In 1913, Henry Moseley discovered that the frequencies of X-ray emissions
from an excited atom were a mathematical function of its atomic number and hydrogen's nuclear
charge. In 1919, Rutherford bombarded nitrogen gas with alpha particles and detected hydrogen
ions being emitted from the gas, and concluded that they were produced by alpha particles
hitting and splitting the nuclei of the nitrogen atoms.[24]

These observations led Rutherford to conclude that the hydrogen nucleus is a singular particle
with a positive charge equal to the electron's negative charge.[25] He named this particle "proton"
in 1920.[26] The number of protons in an atom (which Rutherford called the "atomic
number"[27][28]) was found to be equal to the element's ordinal number on the periodic table and
therefore provided a simple and clear-cut way of distinguishing the elements from each other.
The atomic weight of each element is higher than its proton number, so Rutherford hypothesized
that the surplus weight was carried by unknown particles with no electric charge and a mass
equal to that of the proton.

In 1928, Walter Bothe observed that beryllium emitted a highly penetrating, electrically neutral
radiation when bombarded with alpha particles. It was later discovered that this radiation could
knock hydrogen atoms out of paraffin wax. Initially it was thought to be high-energy gamma
radiation, since gamma radiation had a similar effect on electrons in metals, but James
Chadwick found that the ionization effect was too strong for it to be due to electromagnetic
radiation, so long as energy and momentum were conserved in the interaction. In 1932,
Chadwick exposed various elements, such as hydrogen and nitrogen, to the mysterious
"beryllium radiation", and by measuring the energies of the recoiling charged particles, he
deduced that the radiation was actually composed of electrically neutral particles which could
not be massless like the gamma ray, but instead were required to have a mass similar to that of a
proton. Chadwick now claimed these particles as Rutherford's neutrons.[29]

The current consensus model

The modern model of atomic orbitals

draws zones where an electron is most
likely to be found at any moment.

In 1925, Werner Heisenberg published the first consistent mathematical formulation of quantum
mechanics (matrix mechanics).[30] One year earlier, Louis de Broglie had proposed that all
particles behave like waves to some extent,[31] and in 1926 Erwin Schrödinger used this idea to
develop the Schrödinger equation, which describes electrons as three-dimensional waveforms
rather than points in space.[32] A consequence of using waveforms to describe particles is that it
is mathematically impossible to obtain precise values for both the position and momentum of a
particle at a given point in time. This became known as the uncertainty principle, formulated by
Werner Heisenberg in 1927.[30] In this concept, for a given accuracy in measuring a position one
could only obtain a range of probable values for momentum, and vice versa.[33] Thus, the
planetary model of the atom was discarded in favor of one that described atomic orbital zones
around the nucleus where a given electron is most likely to be found.[34][35] This model was able
to explain observations of atomic behavior that previous models could not, such as certain
structural and spectral patterns of atoms larger than hydrogen.
Structure

Subatomic particles
Though the word atom originally denoted a particle that cannot be cut into smaller particles, in
modern scientific usage the atom is composed of various subatomic particles. The constituent
particles of an atom are the electron, the proton, and the neutron.

The electron is the least massive of these particles by four orders of magnitude at
9.11 × 10−31 kg, with a negative electrical charge and a size that is too small to be measured
using available techniques.[36] It was the lightest particle with a positive rest mass measured,
until the discovery of neutrino mass. Under ordinary conditions, electrons are bound to the
positively charged nucleus by the attraction created from opposite electric charges. Electrons
have been known since the late 19th century, mostly thanks to J.J. Thomson; see history of
subatomic physics for details.

Protons have a positive charge and a mass of 1.6726 × 10−27 kg. The number of protons in an
atom is called its atomic number. Ernest Rutherford (1919) observed that nitrogen under alpha-
particle bombardment ejects what appeared to be hydrogen nuclei. By 1920, he had accepted
that the hydrogen nucleus is a distinct particle within the atom and named it proton.

Neutrons have no electrical charge and have a mass of 1.6749 × 10−27 kg.[37][38] Neutrons are the
heaviest of the three constituent particles, but their mass can be reduced by the nuclear binding
energy. Neutrons and protons (collectively known as nucleons) have comparable dimensions—on
the order of 2.5 × 10−15 m—although the 'surface' of these particles is not sharply defined.[39] The
neutron was discovered in 1932 by the English physicist James Chadwick.

In the Standard Model of physics, electrons are truly elementary particles with no internal
structure, whereas protons and neutrons are composite particles composed of elementary
particles called quarks. There are two types of quarks in atoms, each having a fractional electric
2
charge. Protons are composed of two up quarks (each with charge + ) and one down quark
3
1
(with a charge of − ). Neutrons consist of one up quark and two down quarks. This distinction
3
accounts for the difference in mass and charge between the two particles.[40][41]

The quarks are held together by the strong interaction (or strong force), which is mediated by
gluons. The protons and neutrons, in turn, are held to each other in the nucleus by the nuclear
force, which is a residuum of the strong force that has somewhat different range-properties (see
the article on the nuclear force for more). The gluon is a member of the family of gauge bosons,
which are elementary particles that mediate physical forces.[40][41]
Nucleus

The binding energy needed for a nucleon to

escape the nucleus, for various isotopes

All the bound protons and neutrons in an atom make up a tiny atomic nucleus, and are
collectively called nucleons. The radius of a nucleus ranges from 2 to 7 femtometres starting

with hydrogen and ending with uranium. The radius scale with where is the total number
of nucleons.[42] This is much smaller than the radius of the atom, which is on the order of 105 fm.
The nucleons are bound together by a short-ranged attractive potential called the residual strong
force. At distances smaller than 2.5 fm this force is much more powerful than the electrostatic
force that causes positively charged protons to repel each other.[43]

Atoms of the same element have the same number of protons, called the atomic number. Within
a single element, the number of neutrons may vary, determining the isotope of that element. The
total number of protons and neutrons determine the nuclide. The number of neutrons relative to
the protons determines the stability of the nucleus, with certain isotopes undergoing radioactive
decay.[44]

The proton, the electron, and the neutron are classified as fermions. Fermions obey the Pauli
exclusion principle which prohibits identical fermions, such as multiple protons, from occupying
the same quantum state at the same time. Thus, every proton in the nucleus must occupy a
quantum state different from all other protons, and the same applies to all neutrons of the
nucleus and to all electrons of the electron cloud.[45]

A nucleus that has a different number of protons than neutrons can potentially drop to a lower
energy state through a radioactive decay that causes the number of protons and neutrons to
more closely match. As a result, atoms with matching numbers of protons and neutrons are
more stable against decay, but with increasing atomic number, the mutual repulsion of the
protons requires an increasing proportion of neutrons to maintain the stability of the nucleus.[45]
 Illustration of a nuclear fusion
process that forms a deuterium
nucleus, consisting of a proton
and a neutron, from two protons.
A positron (e+)—an antimatter
electron—is emitted along with
an electron neutrino.

The number of protons and neutrons in the atomic nucleus can be modified, although this can
require very high energies because of the strong force. Nuclear fusion occurs when multiple
atomic particles join to form a heavier nucleus, such as through the energetic collision of two
nuclei. For example, at the core of the Sun protons require energies of 3 to 10 keV to overcome
their mutual repulsion—the coulomb barrier—and fuse together into a single nucleus.[46] Nuclear
fission is the opposite process, causing a nucleus to split into two smaller nuclei—usually
through radioactive decay. The nucleus can also be modified through bombardment by high
energy subatomic particles or photons. If this modifies the number of protons in a nucleus, the
atom changes to a different chemical element.[47][48]

If the mass of the nucleus following a fusion reaction is less than the sum of the masses of the
separate particles, then the difference between these two values can be emitted as a type of
usable energy (such as a gamma ray, or the kinetic energy of a beta particle), as described by
Albert Einstein's mass–energy equivalence formula, E = mc2, where m is the mass loss and c is
the speed of light. This deficit is part of the binding energy of the new nucleus, and it is the non-
recoverable loss of the energy that causes the fused particles to remain together in a state that
requires this energy to separate.[49]

The fusion of two nuclei that create larger nuclei with lower atomic numbers than iron and nickel
—a total nucleon number of about 60—is usually an exothermic process that releases more
energy than is required to bring them together.[50] It is this energy-releasing process that makes
nuclear fusion in stars a self-sustaining reaction. For heavier nuclei, the binding energy per
nucleon begins to decrease. That means that a fusion process producing a nucleus that has an
atomic number higher than about 26, and a mass number higher than about 60, is an
endothermic process. Thus, more massive nuclei cannot undergo an energy-producing fusion
reaction that can sustain the hydrostatic equilibrium of a star.[45]
Electron cloud

A potential well, showing, according to

classical mechanics, the minimum energy
V(x) needed to reach each position x.
Classically, a particle with energy E is
constrained to a range of positions
between x1 and x2.

The electrons in an atom are attracted to the protons in the nucleus by the electromagnetic
force. This force binds the electrons inside an electrostatic potential well surrounding the smaller
nucleus, which means that an external source of energy is needed for the electron to escape. The
closer an electron is to the nucleus, the greater the attractive force. Hence electrons bound near
the center of the potential well require more energy to escape than those at greater separations.

Electrons, like other particles, have properties of both a particle and a wave. The electron cloud is
a region inside the potential well where each electron forms a type of three-dimensional standing
wave—a wave form that does not move relative to the nucleus. This behavior is defined by an
atomic orbital, a mathematical function that characterises the probability that an electron
appears to be at a particular location when its position is measured.[51] Only a discrete (or
quantized) set of these orbitals exist around the nucleus, as other possible wave patterns rapidly
decay into a more stable form.[52] Orbitals can have one or more ring or node structures, and
differ from each other in size, shape and orientation.[53]
 3D views of some hydrogen-like atomic orbitals showing
probability density and phase (g orbitals and higher are not
shown)

Each atomic orbital corresponds to a particular energy level of the electron. The electron can
change its state to a higher energy level by absorbing a photon with sufficient energy to boost it
into the new quantum state. Likewise, through spontaneous emission, an electron in a higher
energy state can drop to a lower energy state while radiating the excess energy as a photon.
These characteristic energy values, defined by the differences in the energies of the quantum
states, are responsible for atomic spectral lines.[52]

The amount of energy needed to remove or add an electron—the electron binding energy—is far
less than the binding energy of nucleons. For example, it requires only 13.6 eV to strip a ground-
state electron from a hydrogen atom,[54] compared to 2.23 million eV for splitting a deuterium
nucleus.[55] Atoms are electrically neutral if they have an equal number of protons and electrons.
Atoms that have either a deficit or a surplus of electrons are called ions. Electrons that are
farthest from the nucleus may be transferred to other nearby atoms or shared between atoms.
By this mechanism, atoms are able to bond into molecules and other types of chemical
compounds like ionic and covalent network crystals.[56]

Properties

Nuclear properties
By definition, any two atoms with an identical number of protons in their nuclei belong to the
same chemical element. Atoms with equal numbers of protons but a different number of
neutrons are different isotopes of the same element. For example, all hydrogen atoms admit
exactly one proton, but isotopes exist with no neutrons (hydrogen-1, by far the most common
form,[57] also called protium), one neutron (deuterium), two neutrons (tritium) and more than two
neutrons. The known elements form a set of atomic numbers, from the single-proton element
hydrogen up to the 118-proton element oganesson.[58] All known isotopes of elements with
atomic numbers greater than 82 are radioactive, although the radioactivity of element 83
(bismuth) is so slight as to be practically negligible.[59][60]

About 339 nuclides occur naturally on Earth,[61] of which 251 (about 74%) have not been
observed to decay, and are referred to as "stable isotopes". Only 90 nuclides are stable
theoretically, while another 161 (bringing the total to 251) have not been observed to decay, even
though in theory it is energetically possible. These are also formally classified as "stable". An
additional 35 radioactive nuclides have half-lives longer than 100 million years, and are long-lived
enough to have been present since the birth of the Solar System. This collection of 286 nuclides
are known as primordial nuclides. Finally, an additional 53 short-lived nuclides are known to
occur naturally, as daughter products of primordial nuclide decay (such as radium from uranium),
or as products of natural energetic processes on Earth, such as cosmic ray bombardment (for
example, carbon-14).[62][note 1]

For 80 of the chemical elements, at least one stable isotope exists. As a rule, there is only a
handful of stable isotopes for each of these elements, the average being 3.1 stable isotopes per
element. Twenty-six "monoisotopic elements" have only a single stable isotope, while the largest
number of stable isotopes observed for any element is ten, for the element tin. Elements 43, 61,
and all elements numbered 83 or higher have no stable isotopes.[63]: 1–12

Stability of isotopes is affected by the ratio of protons to neutrons, and also by the presence of
certain "magic numbers" of neutrons or protons that represent closed and filled quantum shells.
These quantum shells correspond to a set of energy levels within the shell model of the nucleus;
filled shells, such as the filled shell of 50 protons for tin, confers unusual stability on the nuclide.
Of the 251 known stable nuclides, only four have both an odd number of protons and odd number
of neutrons: hydrogen-2 (deuterium), lithium-6, boron-10, and nitrogen-14. (Tantalum-180m is
odd-odd and observationally stable, but is predicted to decay with a very long half-life.) Also, only
four naturally occurring, radioactive odd-odd nuclides have a half-life over a billion years:
potassium-40, vanadium-50, lanthanum-138, and lutetium-176. Most odd-odd nuclei are highly
unstable with respect to beta decay, because the decay products are even-even, and are
therefore more strongly bound, due to nuclear pairing effects.[64]

Mass
The large majority of an atom's mass comes from the protons and neutrons that make it up. The
total number of these particles (called "nucleons") in a given atom is called the mass number. It
is a positive integer and dimensionless (instead of having dimension of mass), because it
expresses a count. An example of use of a mass number is "carbon-12," which has 12 nucleons
(six protons and six neutrons).

The actual mass of an atom at rest is often expressed in daltons (Da), also called the unified
atomic mass unit (u). This unit is defined as a twelfth of the mass of a free neutral atom of
carbon-12, which is approximately 1.66 × 10−27 kg.[65] Hydrogen-1 (the lightest isotope of
hydrogen which is also the nuclide with the lowest mass) has an atomic weight of
1.007825 Da.[66] The value of this number is called the atomic mass. A given atom has an atomic
mass approximately equal (within 1%) to its mass number times the dalton (for example the
mass of a nitrogen-14 is roughly 14 Da), but this number will not be exactly an integer except (by
definition) in the case of carbon-12.[67] The heaviest stable atom is lead-208,[59] with a mass of
207.976 6521 Da.[68]

As even the most massive atoms are far too light to work with directly, chemists instead use the
unit of moles. One mole of atoms of any element always has the same number of atoms (about
6.022 × 1023). This number was chosen so that if an element has an atomic mass of 1 u, a mole
of atoms of that element has a mass close to one gram. Because of the definition of the dalton,
each carbon-12 atom has an atomic mass of exactly 12 Da, and so a mole of carbon-12 atoms
weighs exactly 0.012 kg.[65]

Shape and size

Atoms lack a well-defined outer boundary, so their dimensions are usually described in terms of
an atomic radius. This is a measure of the distance out to which the electron cloud extends from
the nucleus.[69] This assumes the atom to exhibit a spherical shape, which is only obeyed for
atoms in vacuum or free space. Atomic radii may be derived from the distances between two
nuclei when the two atoms are joined in a chemical bond. The radius varies with the location of
an atom on the atomic chart, the type of chemical bond, the number of neighboring atoms
(coordination number) and a quantum mechanical property known as spin.[70] On the periodic
table of the elements, atom size tends to increase when moving down columns, but decrease
when moving across rows (left to right).[71] Consequently, the smallest atom is helium with a
radius of 32 pm, while one of the largest is caesium at 225 pm.[72]

When subjected to external forces, like electrical fields, the shape of an atom may deviate from
spherical symmetry. The deformation depends on the field magnitude and the orbital type of
outer shell electrons, as shown by group-theoretical considerations. Aspherical deviations might
be elicited for instance in crystals, where large crystal-electrical fields may occur at low-
symmetry lattice sites.[73][74] Significant ellipsoidal deformations have been shown to occur for
sulfur ions[75] and chalcogen ions[76] in pyrite-type compounds.

Atomic dimensions are thousands of times smaller than the wavelengths of light (400–700 nm)
so they cannot be viewed using an optical microscope, although individual atoms can be
observed using a scanning tunneling microscope. To visualize the minuteness of the atom,
consider that a typical human hair is about 1 million carbon atoms in width.[77] A single drop of
water contains about 2 sextillion (2 × 1021) atoms of oxygen, and twice the number of hydrogen
atoms.[78] A single carat diamond with a mass of 2 × 10−4 kg contains about 10 sextillion (1022)
atoms of carbon.[note 2] If an apple were magnified to the size of the Earth, then the atoms in the
apple would be approximately the size of the original apple.[79]

Radioactive decay

This diagram shows the half-life (T1⁄ ) of

2
various isotopes with Z protons and N
neutrons.

Every element has one or more isotopes that have unstable nuclei that are subject to radioactive
decay, causing the nucleus to emit particles or electromagnetic radiation. Radioactivity can
occur when the radius of a nucleus is large compared with the radius of the strong force, which
only acts over distances on the order of 1 fm.[80]

The most common forms of radioactive decay are:[81][82]

Alpha decay: this process is caused when the nucleus emits an alpha particle, which is a
helium nucleus consisting of two protons and two neutrons. The result of the emission is a
new element with a lower atomic number.

Beta decay (and electron capture): these processes are regulated by the weak force, and result
from a transformation of a neutron into a proton, or a proton into a neutron. The neutron to
proton transition is accompanied by the emission of an electron and an antineutrino, while
proton to neutron transition (except in electron capture) causes the emission of a positron and
a neutrino. The electron or positron emissions are called beta particles. Beta decay either
increases or decreases the atomic number of the nucleus by one. Electron capture is more
common than positron emission, because it requires less energy. In this type of decay, an
 electron is absorbed by the nucleus, rather than a positron emitted from the nucleus. A
neutrino is still emitted in this process, and a proton changes to a neutron.

Gamma decay: this process results from a change in the energy level of the nucleus to a lower
state, resulting in the emission of electromagnetic radiation. The excited state of a nucleus
which results in gamma emission usually occurs following the emission of an alpha or a beta
particle. Thus, gamma decay usually follows alpha or beta decay.

Other more rare types of radioactive decay include ejection of neutrons or protons or clusters of
nucleons from a nucleus, or more than one beta particle. An analog of gamma emission which
allows excited nuclei to lose energy in a different way, is internal conversion—a process that
produces high-speed electrons that are not beta rays, followed by production of high-energy
photons that are not gamma rays. A few large nuclei explode into two or more charged
fragments of varying masses plus several neutrons, in a decay called spontaneous nuclear
fission.

Each radioactive isotope has a characteristic decay time period—the half-life—that is determined
by the amount of time needed for half of a sample to decay. This is an exponential decay
process that steadily decreases the proportion of the remaining isotope by 50% every half-life.
Hence after two half-lives have passed only 25% of the isotope is present, and so forth.[80]

Magnetic moment
Elementary particles possess an intrinsic quantum mechanical property known as spin. This is
analogous to the angular momentum of an object that is spinning around its center of mass,
although strictly speaking these particles are believed to be point-like and cannot be said to be
rotating. Spin is measured in units of the reduced Planck constant (ħ), with electrons, protons
and neutrons all having spin 1⁄2 ħ, or "spin-1⁄2". In an atom, electrons in motion around the
nucleus possess orbital angular momentum in addition to their spin, while the nucleus itself
possesses angular momentum due to its nuclear spin.[83]

The magnetic field produced by an atom—its magnetic moment—is determined by these various
forms of angular momentum, just as a rotating charged object classically produces a magnetic
field, but the most dominant contribution comes from electron spin. Due to the nature of
electrons to obey the Pauli exclusion principle, in which no two electrons may be found in the
same quantum state, bound electrons pair up with each other, with one member of each pair in a
spin up state and the other in the opposite, spin down state. Thus these spins cancel each other
out, reducing the total magnetic dipole moment to zero in some atoms with even number of
electrons.[84]

In ferromagnetic elements such as iron, cobalt and nickel, an odd number of electrons leads to
an unpaired electron and a net overall magnetic moment. The orbitals of neighboring atoms
overlap and a lower energy state is achieved when the spins of unpaired electrons are aligned
with each other, a spontaneous process known as an exchange interaction. When the magnetic
moments of ferromagnetic atoms are lined up, the material can produce a measurable
macroscopic field. Paramagnetic materials have atoms with magnetic moments that line up in
random directions when no magnetic field is present, but the magnetic moments of the
individual atoms line up in the presence of a field.[84][85]

The nucleus of an atom will have no spin when it has even numbers of both neutrons and
protons, but for other cases of odd numbers, the nucleus may have a spin. Normally nuclei with
spin are aligned in random directions because of thermal equilibrium, but for certain elements
(such as xenon-129) it is possible to polarize a significant proportion of the nuclear spin states
so that they are aligned in the same direction—a condition called hyperpolarization. This has
important applications in magnetic resonance imaging.[86][87]

Energy levels

These electron's energy levels (not to

scale) are sufficient for ground states of
atoms up to cadmium (5s2 4d10)
inclusively. The top of the diagram is lower
than an unbound electron state.

The potential energy of an electron in an atom is negative relative to when the distance from the
nucleus goes to infinity; its dependence on the electron's position reaches the minimum inside
the nucleus, roughly in inverse proportion to the distance. In the quantum-mechanical model, a
bound electron can occupy only a set of states centered on the nucleus, and each state
corresponds to a specific energy level; see time-independent Schrödinger equation for a
theoretical explanation. An energy level can be measured by the amount of energy needed to
unbind the electron from the atom, and is usually given in units of electronvolts (eV). The lowest
energy state of a bound electron is called the ground state, i.e., stationary state, while an electron
transition to a higher level results in an excited state.[88] The electron's energy increases along
with n because the (average) distance to the nucleus increases. Dependence of the energy on ℓ
is caused not by the electrostatic potential of the nucleus, but by interaction between electrons.

For an electron to transition between two different states, e.g. ground state to first excited state,
it must absorb or emit a photon at an energy matching the difference in the potential energy of
those levels, according to the Niels Bohr model, what can be precisely calculated by the
Schrödinger equation. Electrons jump between orbitals in a particle-like fashion. For example, if a
single photon strikes the electrons, only a single electron changes states in response to the
photon; see Electron properties.

The energy of an emitted photon is proportional to its frequency, so these specific energy levels
appear as distinct bands in the electromagnetic spectrum.[89] Each element has a characteristic
spectrum that can depend on the nuclear charge, subshells filled by electrons, the
electromagnetic interactions between the electrons and other factors.[90]

An example of absorption lines in a spectrum

When a continuous spectrum of energy is passed through a gas or plasma, some of the photons
are absorbed by atoms, causing electrons to change their energy level. Those excited electrons
that remain bound to their atom spontaneously emit this energy as a photon, traveling in a
random direction, and so drop back to lower energy levels. Thus the atoms behave like a filter
that forms a series of dark absorption bands in the energy output. An observer viewing the
atoms from a view that does not include the continuous spectrum in the background, instead
sees a series of emission lines from the photons emitted by the atoms. Spectroscopic
measurements of the strength and width of atomic spectral lines allow the composition and
physical properties of a substance to be determined.[91]

Close examination of the spectral lines reveals that some display a fine structure splitting. This
occurs because of spin–orbit coupling, which is an interaction between the spin and motion of
the outermost electron.[92] When an atom is in an external magnetic field, spectral lines become
split into three or more components; a phenomenon called the Zeeman effect. This is caused by
the interaction of the magnetic field with the magnetic moment of the atom and its electrons.
Some atoms can have multiple electron configurations with the same energy level, which thus
appear as a single spectral line. The interaction of the magnetic field with the atom shifts these
electron configurations to slightly different energy levels, resulting in multiple spectral lines.[93]
The presence of an external electric field can cause a comparable splitting and shifting of
spectral lines by modifying the electron energy levels, a phenomenon called the Stark effect.[94]

If a bound electron is in an excited state, an interacting photon with the proper energy can cause
stimulated emission of a photon with a matching energy level. For this to occur, the electron
must drop to a lower energy state that has an energy difference matching the energy of the
interacting photon. The emitted photon and the interacting photon then move off in parallel and
with matching phases. That is, the wave patterns of the two photons are synchronized. This
physical property is used to make lasers, which can emit a coherent beam of light energy in a
narrow frequency band.[95]

Valence and bonding behavior

Valency is the combining power of an element. It is determined by the number of bonds it can
form to other atoms or groups.[96] The outermost electron shell of an atom in its uncombined
state is known as the valence shell, and the electrons in that shell are called valence electrons.
The number of valence electrons determines the bonding behavior with other atoms. Atoms tend
to chemically react with each other in a manner that fills (or empties) their outer valence
shells.[97] For example, a transfer of a single electron between atoms is a useful approximation
for bonds that form between atoms with one-electron more than a filled shell, and others that are
one-electron short of a full shell, such as occurs in the compound sodium chloride and other
chemical ionic salts. Many elements display multiple valences, or tendencies to share differing
numbers of electrons in different compounds. Thus, chemical bonding between these elements
takes many forms of electron-sharing that are more than simple electron transfers. Examples
include the element carbon and the organic compounds.[98]

The chemical elements are often displayed in a periodic table that is laid out to display recurring
chemical properties, and elements with the same number of valence electrons form a group that
is aligned in the same column of the table. (The horizontal rows correspond to the filling of a
quantum shell of electrons.) The elements at the far right of the table have their outer shell
completely filled with electrons, which results in chemically inert elements known as the noble
gases.[99][100]

States

Graphic illustrating the formation of a

Bose–Einstein condensate

Quantities of atoms are found in different states of matter that depend on the physical
conditions, such as temperature and pressure. By varying the conditions, materials can transition
between solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas.[101] Within a state, a material can also exist in
different allotropes. An example of this is solid carbon, which can exist as graphite or
diamond.[102] Gaseous allotropes exist as well, such as dioxygen and ozone.
At temperatures close to absolute zero, atoms can form a Bose–Einstein condensate, at which
point quantum mechanical effects, which are normally only observed at the atomic scale,
become apparent on a macroscopic scale.[103][104] This super-cooled collection of atoms then
behaves as a single super atom, which may allow fundamental checks of quantum mechanical
behavior.[105]

Identification

Scanning tunneling microscope surface

reconstruction image showing the
individual atoms making up this gold (100)
surface. The surface atoms deviate from
the bulk crystal structure and arrange in
columns several atoms wide with pits
between them.

While atoms are too small to be seen, devices such as the scanning tunneling microscope (STM)
enable their visualization at the surfaces of solids. The microscope uses the quantum tunneling
phenomenon, which allows particles to pass through a barrier that would be insurmountable in
the classical perspective. Electrons tunnel through the vacuum between two biased electrodes,
providing a tunneling current that is exponentially dependent on their separation. One electrode
is a sharp tip ideally ending with a single atom. At each point of the scan of the surface the tip's
height is adjusted so as to keep the tunneling current at a set value. How much the tip moves to
and away from the surface is interpreted as the height profile. For low bias, the microscope
images the averaged electron orbitals across closely packed energy levels—the local density of
the electronic states near the Fermi level.[106][107] Because of the distances involved, both
electrodes need to be extremely stable; only then periodicities can be observed that correspond
to individual atoms. The method alone is not chemically specific, and cannot identify the atomic
species present at the surface.

Atoms can be easily identified by their mass. If an atom is ionized by removing one of its
electrons, its trajectory when it passes through a magnetic field will bend. The radius by which
the trajectory of a moving ion is turned by the magnetic field is determined by the mass of the
atom. The mass spectrometer uses this principle to measure the mass-to-charge ratio of ions. If
a sample contains multiple isotopes, the mass spectrometer can determine the proportion of
each isotope in the sample by measuring the intensity of the different beams of ions. Techniques
to vaporize atoms include inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and
inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, both of which use a plasma to vaporize samples
for analysis.[108]

The atom-probe tomograph has sub-nanometer resolution in 3-D and can chemically identify
individual atoms using time-of-flight mass spectrometry.[109]

Electron emission techniques such as X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Auger
electron spectroscopy (AES), which measure the binding energies of the core electrons, are used
to identify the atomic species present in a sample in a non-destructive way. With proper focusing
both can be made area-specific. Another such method is electron energy loss spectroscopy
(EELS), which measures the energy loss of an electron beam within a transmission electron
microscope when it interacts with a portion of a sample.

Spectra of excited states can be used to analyze the atomic composition of distant stars.
Specific light wavelengths contained in the observed light from stars can be separated out and
related to the quantized transitions in free gas atoms. These colors can be replicated using a
gas-discharge lamp containing the same element.[110] Helium was discovered in this way in the
spectrum of the Sun 23 years before it was found on Earth.[111]

Origin and current state

Baryonic matter forms about 4% of the total energy density of the observable universe, with an
average density of about 0.25 particles/m3 (mostly protons and electrons).[112] Within a galaxy
such as the Milky Way, particles have a much higher concentration, with the density of matter in
the interstellar medium (ISM) ranging from 105 to 109 atoms/m3.[113] The Sun is believed to be
inside the Local Bubble, so the density in the solar neighborhood is only about 103 atoms/m3.[114]
Stars form from dense clouds in the ISM, and the evolutionary processes of stars result in the
steady enrichment of the ISM with elements more massive than hydrogen and helium.

Up to 95% of the Milky Way's baryonic matter are concentrated inside stars, where conditions are
unfavorable for atomic matter. The total baryonic mass is about 10% of the mass of the
galaxy;[115] the remainder of the mass is an unknown dark matter.[116] High temperature inside
stars makes most "atoms" fully ionized, that is, separates all electrons from the nuclei. In stellar
remnants—with exception of their surface layers—an immense pressure make electron shells
impossible.

Formation
 Periodic table showing the origin of each element. Elements from carbon up to sulfur may be made in
small stars by the alpha process. Elements beyond iron are made in large stars with slow neutron
capture (s-process). Elements heavier than iron may be made in neutron star mergers or supernovae
after the r-process.

Electrons are thought to exist in the Universe since early stages of the Big Bang. Atomic nuclei
forms in nucleosynthesis reactions. In about three minutes Big Bang nucleosynthesis produced
most of the helium, lithium, and deuterium in the Universe, and perhaps some of the beryllium
and boron.[117][118][119]

Ubiquitousness and stability of atoms relies on their binding energy, which means that an atom
has a lower energy than an unbound system of the nucleus and electrons. Where the
temperature is much higher than ionization potential, the matter exists in the form of plasma—a
gas of positively charged ions (possibly, bare nuclei) and electrons. When the temperature drops
below the ionization potential, atoms become statistically favorable. Atoms (complete with
bound electrons) became to dominate over charged particles 380,000 years after the Big Bang—
an epoch called recombination, when the expanding Universe cooled enough to allow electrons
to become attached to nuclei.[120]

Since the Big Bang, which produced no carbon or heavier elements, atomic nuclei have been
combined in stars through the process of nuclear fusion to produce more of the element helium,
and (via the triple-alpha process) the sequence of elements from carbon up to iron;[121] see
stellar nucleosynthesis for details.

Isotopes such as lithium-6, as well as some beryllium and boron are generated in space through
cosmic ray spallation.[122] This occurs when a high-energy proton strikes an atomic nucleus,
causing large numbers of nucleons to be ejected.

Elements heavier than iron were produced in supernovae and colliding neutron stars through the
r-process, and in AGB stars through the s-process, both of which involve the capture of neutrons
by atomic nuclei.[123] Elements such as lead formed largely through the radioactive decay of
heavier elements.[124]

Earth
Most of the atoms that make up the Earth and its inhabitants were present in their current form
in the nebula that collapsed out of a molecular cloud to form the Solar System. The rest are the
result of radioactive decay, and their relative proportion can be used to determine the age of the
Earth through radiometric dating.[125][126] Most of the helium in the crust of the Earth (about 99%
of the helium from gas wells, as shown by its lower abundance of helium-3) is a product of alpha
decay.[127]

There are a few trace atoms on Earth that were not present at the beginning (i.e., not
"primordial"), nor are results of radioactive decay. Carbon-14 is continuously generated by
cosmic rays in the atmosphere.[128] Some atoms on Earth have been artificially generated either
deliberately or as by-products of nuclear reactors or explosions.[129][130] Of the transuranic
elements—those with atomic numbers greater than 92—only plutonium and neptunium occur
naturally on Earth.[131][132] Transuranic elements have radioactive lifetimes shorter than the
current age of the Earth[133] and thus identifiable quantities of these elements have long since
decayed, with the exception of traces of plutonium-244 possibly deposited by cosmic dust.[125]
Natural deposits of plutonium and neptunium are produced by neutron capture in uranium
ore.[134]

The Earth contains approximately 1.33 × 1050 atoms.[135] Although small numbers of
independent atoms of noble gases exist, such as argon, neon, and helium, 99% of the
atmosphere is bound in the form of molecules, including carbon dioxide and diatomic oxygen
and nitrogen. At the surface of the Earth, an overwhelming majority of atoms combine to form
various compounds, including water, salt, silicates, and oxides. Atoms can also combine to
create materials that do not consist of discrete molecules, including crystals and liquid or solid
metals.[136][137] This atomic matter forms networked arrangements that lack the particular type
of small-scale interrupted order associated with molecular matter.[138]

Rare and theoretical forms

Superheavy elements

All nuclides with atomic numbers higher than 82 (lead) are known to be radioactive. No nuclide
with an atomic number exceeding 92 (uranium) exists on Earth as a primordial nuclide, and
heavier elements generally have shorter half-lives. Nevertheless, an "island of stability"
encompassing relatively long-lived isotopes of superheavy elements[139] with atomic numbers
110 to 114 might exist.[140] Predictions for the half-life of the most stable nuclide on the island
range from a few minutes to millions of years.[141] In any case, superheavy elements (with
Z > 104) would not exist due to increasing Coulomb repulsion (which results in spontaneous
fission with increasingly short half-lives) in the absence of any stabilizing effects.[142]

Exotic matter

Each particle of matter has a corresponding antimatter particle with the opposite electrical
charge. Thus, the positron is a positively charged antielectron and the antiproton is a negatively
charged equivalent of a proton. When a matter and corresponding antimatter particle meet, they
annihilate each other. Because of this, along with an imbalance between the number of matter
and antimatter particles, the latter are rare in the universe. The first causes of this imbalance are
not yet fully understood, although theories of baryogenesis may offer an explanation. As a result,
no antimatter atoms have been discovered in nature.[143][144] In 1996, the antimatter counterpart
of the hydrogen atom (antihydrogen) was synthesized at the CERN laboratory in Geneva.[145][146]

Other exotic atoms have been created by replacing one of the protons, neutrons or electrons with
other particles that have the same charge. For example, an electron can be replaced by a more
massive muon, forming a muonic atom. These types of atoms can be used to test fundamental
predictions of physics.[147][148][149]

See also

Physics portal

Chemistry portal

History of quantum mechanics

Infinite divisibility

Outline of chemistry

Motion

Timeline of atomic and subatomic physics

Nuclear model

Radionuclide

Notes
1. For more recent updates see Brookhaven National Laboratory's Interactive Chart of
Nuclides ([Link] Archived ([Link]
725182342/[Link] 25 July 2020 at the Wayback Machine.

2. A carat is 200 milligrams.

a. A combination of the negative term "a-" and "τομή" (tomḗ), the term for "cut".
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External links
Atoms in Motion – The Feynman Lectures on Physics ([Link]
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[Link]) . Live Science.