🚀 go-pugleaf

Originally-From: logajan@ns.network.com (John Logajan)
>In the general case, do atoms with valence electrons in non-ground states
>cease to react chemically or do the chemical properties change radically?

I suppose that by "non-ground" states you mean the normal states for the
valence electrons. Most elements have all of their electron shells filled,
except the outer ones, which are those that take part in chemical reactions.
A chemical reaction can be described as a process in which one or more bonds
are made or broken, and this means that some of these valence electrons
change the degree to which they are being shared between different atoms.
The inner-shell electrons don't get affected. You can do things to them, e.g.
by shooting x-rays at them; this is done in x-ray fluorescence, where you
knock electrons into higher states, and they (or others) later fall back,
emitting more x-rays. You can also excite the valence electrons (more easily
in fact) with ultraviolet or visible light, and they, too, fall back; such
excited species can also enter into chemical reactions more easily sometimes.

Generally, then, we can excite electrons to higher-energy states, and they
generally (if not knocked completely out to infinity) fall back down, with
emission of energy. The Mills theory, however, proposes that the very inner
electrons at low quantum numbers (that for most elements require x-rays to
knock out) can fall down into sub-basement states. This is the opposite
effect, and Mills reckons they will do this only in the presence of some
other elements that can absorb the resulting energy quanta, i.e. exactly the
right amounts. So the shrunken atom then could only return back up to the
normal state by being offered the same energy quantum by another atom; it
could not spontaneously come back up. Chemistry is not involved here, in fact
- since we are talking about hydrogen with its sole (valence) electron, that
electron when in its sub-basement state could not enter into a normal chemical
reaction, which is no doubt why these "hydrinos" are reckoned to be safe.

I think we are safe from them too, just as we are safe from Kurt Vonnegut's
Ice-9...
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Dieter Britz alias britz@kemi.aau.dk
Kemisk Institut, Aarhus Universitet, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
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