On the Visual Images that Atoms Create
Cynthia Kolb Whitney
Every element in the Periodic Table admits a set of ?ionization potentials? (IP?s), the number of them being equal to the element nuclear charge Z. If we knew all the IP?s for all of the known elements, we would have on the order of 5000 data items. We do not presently have nearly that many of them, since most of them are as yet too difficult to measure. In fact, less than 400 of them are readily available. Nevertheless, this is a rich database for study in parallel with study of physical theory. It reveals a recurring regular pattern, with clarity sufficient to imply plausible predictions about all the thousands of IP data points not yet measured. It proves that existing theories are wrong in several respects, and it can guide the development of a better theory. I first began talking about this exercise to this audience here at Storrs four years ago, and the present paper is a further update. The developing physical theory avoids the unprovable postulates concerning constant light speed c and action quantum h that were so basic to physics in the 20th century, and replaces them both with just one possibly provable new postulate concerning light propagation. The new theory is more consistent with the observable behavior of IP?s. It also explains the stability of neutral atoms overall, and recently also the stability of same-sign charge clusters, which I believe are constituents of all trans-Hydrogenic atoms.
