Periodicity of Nuclear Structure and Emergent Electronic Periodicity

This article tests a prediction arising from earlier work by the author: the chemical properties of atoms and the periodicity of their behaviour would originate, not in an arrangement of electrons in shells, but directly in the nuclear structure and its local functional sites. Several public and independent data corpora are interrogated, without theoretical preconception: the list of the known isotopes of each element, their relative stabilities and proportions, their decay paths, the magnetic moments, the ionisation energies and the binding energies. The analysis, conducted element by element from hydrogen to lead, shows that the progression of the stable isotopes follows a specific recurring sequence, with structural filling rules, in shells, whose outer shell systematically accounts for the number of chemical bonds of the element. A complete atlas of the 297 most stable isotopes describes their structure to the nucleon. Each atom seems to contain, intact, the shells of the elements that precede it: the successive ionisation energies, aligned on the core, provide a direct radiography of this, recovering the periodic layout derived from the isotopes. Selected by a common criterion (an isomeric state more stable than the ground state), 12 nuclear isomers are successfully derived, from the isotopic atlas, as structures alternative to the fundamental notations, with predictable decay paths. These independent corpora seem to point towards the same structure: the electronic periodicity would emerge directly from the nuclear periodicity. The whole is proposed for verification, each step being documented by time-stamped deposits and reproducible from the public data. Preprint. Submitted for publication