Iron is the end of the road for fission and fusion, the lowest energy nucleus. It's also the strongest magnetic atom. Is this coincidence, or is there a deeper connection?
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Iron is the end of the road for fission and fusion, the lowest energy nucleus. It's also the strongest magnetic atom. Is this coincidence, or is there a deeper connection?
Well it's not exactly a coincidence, but the two things are not directly linked.
Fusion and fission are governed by the nuclear properties.
Magnetism has to do with the properties of the electronic structure of the atom.
So while the electron states are linked to the nucleus as they depend on the mass and charge of the nucleus, you would not find an obvious link by comparing e.g. the spectrum of Iron to the nuclear properties of Iron.
If I change the nuclear properties by using different isotopes of Iron, I don't get quite the same effect in any resulting change in magnetic properties, simply because the small change in mass of the nucleus has a relatively small effect on the electronic state. Likewise, changing the energy levels of the electrons does not significantly affect the nuclear properties.
They are linked by the number of protons in the nucleus, but you'd find that hard to tell by comparing the two sets of properties.
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