Internal Conversion
Metastable isomers may also decay by internal conversion — a process in which the energy of nuclear de-excitation is not emitted as a gamma ray, but instead used to accelerate one of the inner electrons of the atom, so that it leaves at high speed and energy. This process is only possible because inner atomic electrons penetrate the nucleus, where they are subject to the intense electric fields which result when the protons of the nucleus re-arrange in a different way. In nuclei which are far from stability in energy, still other decay modes are known.
Read more about this topic: Nuclear Isomer
Famous quotes containing the words internal and/or conversion:
“What makes some internal feature of a thing a representation could only its role in regulating the behavior of an intentional system.”
—Daniel Clement Dennett (b. 1942)
“The conversion of a savage to Christianity is the conversion of Christianity to savagery.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)