Protons and neutrons attract each other by passing their EMF charges back and forth between them.
In the nucleus, it looks to me like the charge is passed around between nuclear particles on a regular round robin basis. If a nuclear particle does not get its charge fix in time so that its charge can be refreshed through a charge change, it is pushed out of the nucleus. In a proton rich nucleus, the mesons will eventually fail to service the charge changing needs of all its constituent protons. The mesons have a short life and in that short time they can only do so much. A neglected proton will not get a negative charge change from the mesons to turn the proton into a neutron and eventually a neglected proton pair will be pushed out of the atom. On the other hand, in a neutron rich nucleus, the mesons will eventually fail to service the charge changing needs of all its constituent neutrons. The mesons can only do so much. A neutron will not get a positive charge from the mesons to turn the neutron into a proton and eventually a neglected neutron pair will be pushed out of the atom. If the total positive charge in the nucleus is screened to some degree, some number of protons will be expelled from the nucleus until the nucleus is smaller and has a close balance of protons and neutrons based on the charge capacity that the nucleus has remaining. Being exceptionally stable, elements that have magic numbers of protons and neutrons will resist charge screening. One event that is likely: a proton pair having been expelled from the nucleus will pair up and become an alpha particle with one pair adjusting their charges by absorbing some electrons to become a neutron pair. This neutron pair will find another proton pair and thus form an alpha particle. On Sat, Apr 27, 2013 at 8:53 PM, Harry Veeder <[email protected]> wrote: > Focus: Nuclei Emit Paired-up Neutrons > > Published March 9, 2012 | Physics 5, 30 (2012) | DOI: > 10.1103/Physics.5.30 > > A neutron-rich nucleus can emit a neutron pair as a single unit as a > product of nuclear decay. > > A neutron-only nucleus is considered physically impossible, but > researchers have now seen a short-lived neutron pairing as a product > of nuclear decay. The so-called dineutron had been indirectly observed > inside neutron-rich nuclei, but the new experimental evidence reported > in Physical Review Letters confirms that pairs of neutrons can exist > outside the nucleus, albeit for a very short time. Further dineutron > research could provide insight into the nuclear physics of neutron > stars and supernovae. > > The forces holding together the protons and neutrons in a nucleus are > not completely understood. Exotic forms of matter, such as dineutrons > and diprotons, offer researchers the chance to push their models to > extremes and see how well they hold up. Both dineutrons and diprotons > are nearly stable, so researchers have searched for brief appearances > of these particle pairs in nuclear reactions for several decades. Most > of these searches have looked for diprotons because neutron-rich > nuclei are harder to make, and neutrons are harder to detect. The > results have been ambiguous, in part because the electric charge on > the proton complicates the data analysis... > > http://physics.aps.org/articles/v5/30 > > > http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v108/i10/e102501 > >
