[Physics] If Hydrogen’s nucleus lacks a neutron, then what is keeping the nucleus stable and the proton inside it

binding-energyhydrogenneutronsnuclear-physics

I have two questions :

  1. In a simple hydrogen atom $(^1_1H)$, there is no neutron. So, if there is no nuclear force to hold the nucleus together then what is the thing that is holding the atom together? Why doesn't the proton get out of the atom ?

  2. If there is no neutron, does this mean that the binding energy of Hydrogen atom is $0$ ? I came across a question, in which binding energy of helium atom was to be calculated and in the solution the atomic mass of helium atom was subtracted from the sum of 2 Hydrogen atoms $(2\space\times 1.0078u)$ and 2 neutrons $(2\space\times1.0087u$), so wouldn't this imply that the binding energy of hydrogen is $0$?

Best Answer

The nucleus of hydrogen is just a proton, protons are stable. There are bound valence quarks in the nucleus however, and they are held together by the strong force. The proton-electron version of hydrogen does have the same feature you mentioned though, that it weighs slightly less than the mass of a free proton plus the mass of a free electron due to binding energy of the pair. But the binding energy there is much smaller than what you get from the strong force.

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