Atomic Nucleus

**Atomic Nuclei** (also known as **Nuclei** or **Nuclides**) are subatomic complexes that lie in the center of atoms. Nuclei are almost always composed of protons and neutrons, and are held together by the Strong Force. They contain almost all of the mass of an atom, and have a positive electromagnetic charge, allowing for the orbit of electrons around them, which are responsible for the chemistry of atoms.

In nature there are 253 different types of stable atomic nuclei, the lightest being hydrogen-1, composed of a single protons, and the heaviest being lead-208. Due to the limited range of the strong force, heavier nuclei are unstable in nature and decay, releasing various types of radiation.

However, if Ligism is employed, much heavier nuclei can be created, including those hundreds of times heavier than lead-208, and those with exotic shapes and properties including toruses and nucleozymes. Using ligism, nuclei can also be created using exotic hadrons.

## Role

Despite their name, nuclei do not need to be part of atoms to function. However, nuclei with a net charge are almost always found in the centers of atoms. Nuclei contain almost all of an atom's mass, the electrons contributing negligible amounts. Light nuclei are uninvolved in chemistry, and apart from their mass they contribute almost nothing to the physical world. Heavy nuclei, however, are radioactive, and have a great effect on the physical world. The radiation they give off can produce harmful genetic mutations and trigger other chemical reactions. Radioactive materials can also produce huge amounts of heat, enough to make nuclear power plants and nuclear weapons. These devices use nuclear fission (the breaking and re-forming of nuclear bonds) to produce energy.

Nuclear fusion is another important nuclear reaction, which powers stars, thermonuclear reactors and thermonuclear weapons.

## Composition

Nuclei usually consist of the two types of hadrons that are stable in nature: Protons and neutrons. However, they can consist of other, more exotic hadrons, provided Ligism is introduced to stabilize both the hadrons and the nuclide.

The upper limit of mass for a nucleus is around 200 atomic masses. The Strong Force's small effective range is the limiting factor. After around this mark, destabilization begins to occur, and elements spontaneously decay over varying amounts of time. Despite this, it is possible to synthesize nuclides with atomic masses up to 253 (Einsteinium) in visible quantities without the use of Ligism.

## Stabilized nuclei

Using Ligism, it is possible to remove this limit on the number of hadrons that can be combined into a nucleus, allowing for the creation of very large nuclei. Millium is a chemical element with an atomic number of 1000, and an atomic mass of over 2000, created using Ligism.

Apart from thousands of exotic new chemical elements, Ligism allows for the creation of other powerful nuclei including nuclear molecules, nucleozymes, toruses, nuclear polymers and nuclear crystals.

### Nuclear molecules

> *Main article: Nuclear molecule*
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These are nuclei stabilized by Ligism and formed into exotic shapes. If such a nucleus is incorporated into an atom, the atom itself will somewhat adopt the nucleus's shape, allowing for the creation of bizarre, non-spherical atoms with unique chemical properties.

### Nucleolysts and nucleozymes

> *Main article: Nuclear catalyst*
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These are very large nuclear structures, often with 1000 nucleons or more, that are capable of acting as catalysts for nuclear reactions, in the same way certain chemical compounds act as chemical catalysts. The term nucleozyme refers to a discreet catalytic unit, whereas a nucleolyst can refer to a continuous set of catalytic complexes. Nucleozymes and nucleolysts can be used to catalyse nuclear fusion, allowing for fusion reactions to take place without the extreme conditions that would normally be required.

### Toruses

> *Main article: Nuclear Torus*
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Toruses are large nuclear structures that have holes through them, holes which are large enough to allow hadrons and even smaller nuclei to pass through. For this reason, they are also known as *porous nuclei*. The conditions created by passing smaller nuclides through a torus are very exotic, and under some conditions allow for the generation of artificial forces such as tractism, nectism and ligism. For this reason, toruses are highly sought after, and are used in many technological applications, most importantly those involving tractism.

### Nuclear polymers

> *Main article: Nuclear polymer*
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Nuclear polymers, also known as nucleomers for short, are some of the most astonishing creations made possible by ligism. They are long chains of nuclear structures, bound together by ligism-enforced nuclear bonds, similar to chemical polymers, which are long chains of molecules bound by chemical bonds. Nuclear polymers can be long enough to make macroscopic materials. These materials can have many exotic properties, including being nigh impossible to break or damage, but unleashing enormous quantities of energy when finally broken.

### Nuclear crystals

> *Main article: Nuclear crystal*
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Nuclear crystals are in many ways analogs to chemical crystals, consisting of a regular arrangement of nucleons in an ordered, symmetrical structure.