How Can We Explain Why Electrons Don't Spiral Into the Attracting Nucleus?
Why don't electrons in the atom enter the nucleus?
Category: Physics Published: August 8, 2013
This paradigm shows a mathematical plot of a single electron in the first excited state in a hydrogen atom. As tin be seen here, an electron in an atom is spread out into a moving ridge shape that overlaps with the nucleus. The nucleus is not shown in this image simply would be at the centre of the image. The bright spot in the center is office of the electron. For this country, the electron peaks at the nucleus. Public Domain Image, source: Christopher Due south. Baird
Electrons in the atom do enter the nucleus. In fact, electrons in the s states tend to peak at the nucleus. Electrons are not trivial balls that can fall into the nucleus nether electrostatic attraction. Rather, electrons are quantized wavefunctions that spread out in space and can sometimes act like particles in limited means. An electron in an atom spreads out co-ordinate to its energy. United states of america with more energy are more than spread out. All electron states overlap with the nucleus, so the concept of an electron "falling into" or "entering" the nucleus does non really make sense. Electrons are always partially in the nucleus.
If the question was supposed to inquire, "Why don't electrons in the atom get localized in the nucleus?" then the answer is still "they do". Electrons can get localized in the nucleus, just it takes an interaction to arrive happen. The process is known as "electron capture" and it is an important fashion of radioactive disuse. In electron capture, an atomic electron is absorbed past a proton in the nucleus, turning the proton into a neutron. The electron starts every bit a regular atomic electron, with its wavefunction spreading through the atom and overlapping with the nucleus. In time, the electron reacts with the proton via its overlapping portion, collapses to a betoken in the nucleus, and disappears every bit information technology becomes part of the new neutron. Because the atom at present has one less proton, electron capture is a type of radioactive decay that turns one element into another element.
If the question was supposed to ask, "Why is it rare for electrons to get localized in the nucleus?" then the answer is: it takes an interaction in the nucleus to completely localize an electron at that place, and there is often nothing for the electron to collaborate with. An electron volition but react with a proton in the nucleus via electron capture if in that location are too many protons in the nucleus. When there are too many protons, some of the outer protons are loosely bound and more free to react with the electron. Merely about atoms exercise not have as well many protons, so there is nothing for the electron to interact with. As a result, each electron in a stable atom remains in its spread-out wavefunction shape. Each electron continues to menstruation in, out, and effectually the nucleus without finding anything in the nucleus to interact with that would collapse it down inside the nucleus. It's a expert thing too, because if electron capture was more common, thing would non exist stable just would collapse down to a handful of nuclei.
Source: https://wtamu.edu/~cbaird/sq/2013/08/08/why-dont-electrons-in-the-atom-enter-the-nucleus/
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