Atomic and nuclear properties of materials:
Positronium (atom with e+ as nucleus)
Quantity | Value | Units | Value | Units
| Atomic number
|
1
| n
| n
| n
| Mass*
|
+/- 1.097 526 752
+/- 0.000 000 005
| 10-3 u
|
+/- 1.021 991 03
+/- 0.000 000 09
| MeV
| Mean lifetime (annihilation) |
Singlet: 125 |
ps |
Doublet: 140 | ns
|
* Ground state binding energy = Ry/2.
Is it reasonable to consider Ps as a chemical element?
-
It is bound electronically. If we consider atoms as having orbital
electrons,
then the positron plays the role of nucleus.
-
It has a rich chemistry, as Google searches on "positronium halides,"
"positronium compounds," and other strings show. There are international
conferences on positronium chemistry.
-
In other exotic atoms such as muonium, pionium, and kaonium, the bound
muon or meson plays the role of an orbital electron instead of being the
nucleus. Although e-pi+ and other such atoms might equally well
be regarded as elements, as would atoms with hypernuclei, these
contain
unstable particles. An isolated positron is presumably as stable
as an electron.
-
One serious objection is that the positronium "nucleus" has non-zero
lepton
number.
(e-pi+ and atoms with hypernuclei have nuclei with lepton number
zero, as do "normal" nuclei.)
- We are physicists, not chemists.
|