# What happens to electrons when energy levels change in an alpha emission?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-electrons-when-energy-levels-change-in-an-alpha-emission/561764>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [November 24, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-electrons-when-energy-levels-change-in-an-alpha-emission/561764 "2010-11-24T10:23:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-electrons-when-energy-levels-change-in-an-alpha-emission/561764/1 "2010-11-24T10:23:55Z")

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When teaching radioactivity to high-schoolers you get lots of odd questions, and sometimes you think of one yourself.  
When a radioactive nucleus emits an alpha particle (or beta particle) it becomes an ion and since it’s it’s now a different element the energy levels change. The nucleus may send out one or more gamma photons to get to a ground state, but what happens with the electrons as the energy levels permitted them change?

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**Author:** ![MikeS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/919ad9/32.png) [@MikeS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MikeS)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-electrons-when-energy-levels-change-in-an-alpha-emission/561764/2 "2010-11-24T13:06:58Z")

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I’m not an expert in nuclear physics, but as a regular physicist I know that if a quantum system changes “suddenly” (which a nuclear decay would probably qualify as), the new state is pretty much identical to the old as far as the wavefunction and the probability distribution goes. The main difference is that the old wavefunction is no longer a state of definite energy, but rather a superposition of the new energy levels. So in the case of an atom, the electrons would end up in the same place, but their wavefunction wouldn’t be state of definite energy.

Hope this helps. I’ve assumed a passing familiarity with quantum mechanics above, but if I need to back up a step just say “Whoa there, pardner” and I’ll back up a few steps.

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**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\
**Post date:** [November 24, 2010, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-happens-to-electrons-when-energy-levels-change-in-an-alpha-emission/561764/3 "2010-11-24T15:56:53Z")

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Quantums hurt my brain, but am I right in interpreting this as the electrons simultaneously “occupying” whichever combination of energy levels add up to the energy level they were at before the emission?

If so, what do they do next? Emit the necessary photons to drop to their ground state?