An alternating quark ball-and-stick model of nuclear structure

The atomic nucleus contains protons and neutrons, each containing three quarks. Effective field theories and ab initio techniques treating nucleons as point-like particles have been enormously successful in accounting for many nuclear properties, including structure. The methodologies, however, remain computationally intensive and complex to the novice. The proposed alternating quark model (AQM) is an entry-level geometric model of nuclear structure based on the radius of the proton. Alternating up- and down-quarks occupy average positions within linear or polygonal chains. Best-fit structural solutions form cylindrical lattices of stacked 6-nucleon (18-quark) rings exhibiting structural periodicity that repeats every 12 nucleons. A corresponding periodicity in nuclear magnetic moments validates the model. The quark alternation hypothesis produces a near-perfect correlation between predicted and accepted charge radii of stable nuclides through 36Ar. Model-consistent structures of 5He, 8Be, 18F, and 30P illuminate why they are unstable. A novel criterion of nuclear stability is demonstrated: Nuclides containing contiguous alternating quark sequences tend to be stable; those containing discontiguous quark sequences tend to be unstable. The AQM nuclide structure acts as a substrate that sterically selects either a proton or neutron in nucleosynthesis, analogous to base pair selection in DNA replication. Implications for nuclear fusion are discussed.