The delimiting/frontier lines of the constituents of matter

Abstract

Looking at the \emph{chart of nuclides} displayed at the URL of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) \cite{IAEA} -- that contains all the known nuclides, the natural and those produced artificially in labs -- one verifies the existence of two, not quite regular, \emph{delimiting lines} between which dwell all the nuclides constituting matter. These lines are established by the highly unstable radionuclides located the most far away from those in the central locus, the\emph{valley of stability}. Here, making use of the "old" semi-empirical mass formula for stable nuclides together with the energy-time uncertainty relation of quantum mechanics, by a simple calculation we show that the obtained \emph{frontier lines}, for proton and neutron excesses, present an appreciable agreement with the delimiting lines. For the sake of presenting a somewhat comprehensive panorama of the matter in our Universe and their relation with the frontier lines, we narrate, in brief, what is currently known about the astrophysical nucleogenesis processes.

Comments: 28 pages, 5 figures, 61 references