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Re: [Re: radioactivity]



Yes, Daddy. And how come we don't find some sort of a nucleus made
out of two neutrons? After all neutrons have spin, so two neutrons with
opposite spin could combine to make a nucleus. No?
Regards,
Jack

I recall from the dim, dark past that I once did a calculation as an
undergraduate. There is, in principle, an infinite number of bound
states of the dineutron. They can be found by applying the Bohr-
Sommerfeld quantization criterion to the case of two neutrons orbiting
their common center of mass in circular paths, bound together only by
their magnetic dipole attraction! This system had some very weird
properties as I recall. Since the calculation is semiclassical it is
easy to do. Perhaps a bright undergraduate reading this list might
benefit from the exercise of reconstructing this system for us. (One
result I do seem to recall was that the smallest bound state was very
large.)

Leigh