The shell model of nuclear structure predicts that nuclei with certain magic numbers of protons or neutrons will be more rigidly spherical and stable than their neighbors. The magic numbers - 2, 8, 20, 28, 50, 82, and 126 - are somewhat reminiscent of the atomic numbers of the noble gases, as well they should be. Just as completed shells of single-electron states convey extraordinary chemical stability, completed shells of single-neutron or single-proton states in the mean-field potential of all the other nucleons do much the same for nuclei.
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