Radioactive decay
(also known as nuclear decay
, radioactivity or nuclear radiation
) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus
(in terms of mass in its rest frame
) by emitting radiation
, such as an alpha particle
, beta particle with neutrino or only a neutrino in the case of electron capture
, or a gamma ray or electron in the case of internal conversion
. A material containing such unstable nuclei is considered radioactive
. Certain highly excited short
−lived nuclear states can decay through neutron emission
, or more rarely
, proton emission
.