Neutronium

Neutronium (or neutrium,[1] or neutrite[2]) is a hypothetical substance made purely of neutrons. The word was coined by scientist Andreas von Antropoff in 1926 (before the 1932 discovery of the neutron) for the hypothetical "element of atomic number zero" (with zero protons in its nucleus) that he placed at the head of the periodic table (denoted by -).[3][4] However, the meaning of the term has changed over time, and from the last half of the 20th century onward it has been also used to refer to extremely dense substances resembling the neutron-degenerate matter theorized to exist in the cores of neutron stars; hereinafter "degenerate neutronium" will refer to this.

  1. ^ Inglis-Arkell, Esther (2012-04-14). "Neutrium: The Most Neutral Hypothetical State of Matter Ever". io9.com. Archived from the original on 2014-11-12. Retrieved 2013-02-11.
  2. ^ Zhuravleva, Valentina (2005). Ballad of the Stars: Stories of Science Fiction, Ultraimagination, and TRIZ. Technical Innovation Center, Inc. p. 75. ISBN 978-0-9640740-6-4. Archived from the original on 2022-04-12. Retrieved 2019-04-25.
  3. ^ von Antropoff, A. (1926). "Eine neue Form des periodischen Systems der Elementen". Zeitschrift für Angewandte Chemie (in German). 39 (23): 722–725. Bibcode:1926AngCh..39..722V. doi:10.1002/ange.19260392303.
  4. ^ Stewart, P. J. (2007). "A century on from Dmitrii Mendeleev: Tables and spirals, noble gases and Nobel prizes". Foundations of Chemistry. 9 (3): 235–245. doi:10.1007/s10698-007-9038-x. S2CID 97131841.