|San José State University| & Tornado Alley Four-Nucleon
Combinations to Alpha Nuclides Nuclei are thought of as being
composed of protons and neutrons. Their binding energies are
computed in terms of the deficit of their masses compared to the
masses of the constituent protons and neutrons. However there is
a good deal of evidence that the protons and neutrons form alpha
particles whenever possible.l (The nuclides which could and
probably do contain an integral number of alpha particles are
here called alpha nuclides.) Any additional neutrons beyond
those tied up in alpha particles form pairs where possible.
Therefore the binding energy of a nuclide is largely a matter of
the binding energies of the subparticles (alpha particles and
nucleon pairs) of which it is composed. There is an additional
component of binding energy for a nuclide which comes from the
arrangement of those subparticles in the nuclide. This binding
energy will be referred to as excess binding energy. When the
excess binding energies are c