What occurs when electrons stop orbiting the nucleus?

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In summary: If a proton loses an electron it becomes a positively charged ion. If it gains an electron it becomes a negatively charged ion.In summary, if we were able to somehow stop an electron from orbiting an atom, the atom would become an ion. This can be achieved by providing enough energy to knock the electron off the atom, resulting in a positively or negatively charged ion. However, it is not possible to stop an electron from orbiting an atom as it is in a quantized energy state and can only be removed by providing enough energy to ionize the atom.
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CuriousS
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What will happen if somehow we make electron to stop revolving around the necleus?
 
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  • #2
CuriousS said:
What will happen if somehow we make an atom stop oscillating as a wave? Will the atom disappear?
This question makes no sense. An atom isn't oscillating as a wave. An atom has a nucleus of protons and neutrons, surrounded by electrons in various quantised energy states (called electron shells).
 
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PeroK said:
This question makes no sense. An atom isn't oscillating as a wave. An atom has a nucleus of protons and neutrons, surrounded by electrons in various quantised energy states (called electron shells).
Sorry I questioned it wrong. I have corrected it.
 
  • #4
CuriousS said:
What will happen if somehow we make electron to stop revolving around the necleus?

First, it isn't revolving round the nucleus. It's in an energy eigenstate. Only certain energy eigenstates are allowed (they must be solutions to the Schrodinger equation).

You can ionise an atom, by providing enough energy to "free" an electron. In that case you have an ion and a free electron which is no longer bound to the atom/ion.

The short answer to your question is that you get an ion.
 
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  • #5
CuriousS said:
What will happen if somehow we make electron to stop revolving around the necleus?
You can't stop such an electron. But if you have only a nucleus (ion) and shoot an electron onto this nucleus, then a proton will turn into a neutron by emitting a neutrino.
Here is a nice list of weak interactions:
https://www.sas.upenn.edu/~pgl/SMB/529/Lecture_notes/LN15_weak.pdf
 
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Basically you are asking "what would happen if we stop physics to work the way it does?". No way to predict it, just as you can't predict how a fairy tale ends before it is told to the end.
 
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CuriousS said:
What will happen if somehow we make electron to stop revolving around the necleus?
The word is 'orbiting' but the question is basically ok. It's not at all hard to knock an electron off an atom. A high energy photon or electron will do it. It happens all the time in our atmosphere. The atoms that are in and near stars are pretty much all missing some or all of their electrons. Atoms with missing electrons are called Ions.
 

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