Radioactive decay

Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay or radioactivity) is the process by which the nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting radiation, including alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays, and conversion electrons. A material that spontaneously emits such radiation is considered radioactive.

Radioactive decay is a (i.e. random) process at the level of single atoms, in that, according to quantum theory, it is impossible to predict when a particular atom will decay, regardless of how long the atom has existed. For a collection of atoms however, the collection's decay rate can be calculated from their measured decay constants or half-lives. This is the basis of radiometric dating. The half-lives of radioactive atoms have no known lower or upper limit, spanning a time range of over 55 orders of magnitude, from nearly instantaneous to far longer than the age of the universe. A radioactive source emits its decay products isotropically (all directions and without bias) in the absence of external influence.

There are many different types of radioactive decay. A decay, or loss of energy from the nucleus, results when an atom with an initial type of nucleus, called the parent radionuclide (or parent radioisotope), transforms into a daughter nuclide. The transformation produces an atom in a different state (a nucleus containing a different number of protons and neutrons). In some decays, the parent and the daughter nuclides are different chemical elements, and thus the decay process results in the creation of an atom of a different element. This is known as a nuclear transmutation.

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