12Ne

12Ne, or Neon-12, is the isotope of neon with mass number 12. It contains 10 protons and 2 neutrons. This combination places it extremely proton-rich on the edge of the nuclear landscape, well away from the valley of stability.

In contemporary nuclear theory, 12Ne is not expected to be bound. The ground state of this isotope is predicted to lie beyond the proton drip line, meaning any would-be state would be unbound with respect to proton emission. If formed, it would exist only as a very short-lived resonance and would decay rapidly by emitting protons or through other fast multi-particle decay channels to lighter, typically unbound nuclei such as lighter oxygen or fluorine isotopes. Because of its unbound nature, there is no known stable or long-lived bound state for 12Ne.

Experimentally, there is no confirmed observation of a bound 12Ne nucleus. Its existence is primarily of theoretical interest, helping to delineate the location of the proton drip line in light nuclei and to test models of nuclear forces in extreme proton-rich systems. Production of 12Ne would require high-energy nuclear reactions, such as projectile fragmentation, and any resulting state would decay so quickly that it is detectable only as transient resonances rather than as a bound nucleus.

12Ne thus serves as a case study in the limits of nuclear binding and the structure of very light, proton-rich isotopes, contrasting with nearby bound neon isotopes such as 20Ne and 22Ne.