A Representational Alternating Quark Model of Nuclear Structure

Protons and neutrons within the atomic nucleus each contain three quarks. No consensus exists on a role for quarks in nuclear structure, and treating protons and neutrons as point-like particles has been sufficient to explain an enormous body of experi- mental results. The methodologies for achieving these results are quite complex and computationally intensive, however. The alternating quark model (AQM) is a simplistic ball-and-stick model (akin to molecular ball-and-stick models or Lewis dot structures in the field of chemistry) that uses pre-university algebra and trigonometry to solve for structures of stable nuclei through Ar-36 based on average quark positions within equally-spaced alternating up/down quark sequences. Corresponding radius predictions correlate near perfectly (r(33) = .99, 2-tail p <.001) with accepted RMS charge radii, and explain the erratic radius-to-mass below Li-6 and the linear radius-to-mass above. Larger structures conform to an anisotropic cylindrical lattice of alternating nucleons arranged within stacked 6-nucleon rings, wherein one end of the cylindrical nucleus exhibits shell-like periodicity. A complete shell comprises a duodectet of 12 valence nucleons. Structural periodicity is validated by a corre- sponding periodicity in nuclear magnetic moments and single-nucleon nucleosynthesis. A nuclides’ quark structure serves as a substrate in the steric selection of single-nucleon net nucleosynthesis in a way analogous to base pair selection in DNA replication. Products with contiguous alternating quark sequences are stable, and products without them are unstable. A sequence of alternating +2/3 and -1/3 charge (equivalent to up and down quark charge) set 0.84 fm apart (equal to the radius of the proton) demonstrates a Coulomb-like potential energy barrier as determined by a mathematical matrix employing Cou- lombs Law. Removing a single charge from such an alternating sequence of charges demonstrates a short-range attractive force that mimics quantum mechanical asymptotic freedom and quark confinement. Implications for the European Muon Collaboration effect are discussed.