A classical electrodynamic theory of the nucleus

A new phenomenological model of the nucleus has been constructed by separately modeling a proton and a neutron using a classical electromagnetic approach first suggested by Arthur Compton and later elaborated from plasma physics experiments conducted by his student, Winston Bostick. Using these two nucleon representations, different nuclei are arranged by placing neutrons and protons in static geometric positions, where the force balance has minimum energy. These positions have been verified numerically using a variational minimization technique. This suggests that mechanical vibration is a valid physical mechanism for decay. For the first time, the pattern of all the magic number closed nucleon-shells is accurately predicted, and new magic numbers have been found. These numbers have been verified against experimental data. The masses of all individual isotopes that were calculated are in agreement with the measured values within less than a tenth of a percent, thus mimicking the experimentally measured binding energy per nucleon curve. An extension of this idea to model electrons in atoms also predicts the pattern of the Periodic Table of the Elements.