Hydrogen-4

Hydrogen-4 is a highly unstable isotope of hydrogen. The nucleus consists of a proton and three neutrons. It has been synthesised in the laboratory by bombarding tritium with fast-moving deuterium nuclei (see this article). In this experiment, the tritium nuclei captured neutrons from the fast-moving deuterium nucleus. The presence of the hydrogen-4 was deduced by detecting the emitted protons. Its atomic mass is 4.0279121. It decays through neutron emission and has a half-life of 9.93696x10^-23 seconds.

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Quadium

In the 1955 satirical novel The Mouse That Roared, the name quadium was given to the hydrogen-4 isotope that powered the Q-bomb that the Duchy of Grand Fenwick captured from the United States.

See also

• Isotopes of hydrogen