Helion (chemistry)

This article is about the nucleus of Helium. For other uses, see Helion (disambiguation).

A helion is a short name for the naked nucleus of helium, a doubly positively charged helium ion. In practice, helion refers to the stable helium-3 nucleus, in opposition to the other stable nucleus helium-4, which is usually referred to as an alpha particle. The (helium-3) helion consists of two protons and one neutron.

This particle is emitted in the decay of the radioactive hydrogen isotope tritium. This reaction has been used in experimental chromosome labelling.

According to CODATA, the mass of a helion particle is 5.006 412 700(62) × 10⁻²⁷ kg.

External links

• Helion mass - 2014 CODATA