{ "model": { "rank": 8470, "code": "thing-q3332922", "model_id": "vr.tr.radioactive-decay", "name": "radioactive decay", "purpose": "Let an agent explain radioactive decay by mode, half-life, detection, uses and radiation safety, without facilitating harm.", "family": "Thing Registry", "category": "Activities and processes", "status": "research-draft", "kind": "thing", "plane": "ACT", "domain": "ACT.PRC", "industry": "", "version": "", "url": "/models/thing/q3332922/", "tier": 2, "score": 51, "payload": { "layer": "wikidata", "aliases": [ "neutron emission", "delayed decay", "isomeric transition", "double neutron emission", "three neutron decay", "four neutron decay", "three proton decay", "double alpha decay", "internal conversion", "cluster decay", "proton emission", "double proton emission" ], "aliasCount": 12, "merged": 12, "knownIn": 51, "facets": null, "markers": [], "lexicalClass": "", "senseRank": null, "alsoRegisteredAs": null, "source": { "dataset": "wikidata", "item": "Q3332922", "url": "https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3332922", "license": "CC0 1.0" } }, "research": { "vercy": "1.0-draft", "publication": { "status": "research-draft", "adjudicationStatus": "unreviewed", "publishableCanonical": false, "generatedAt": "2026-09-11T11:51:59Z", "providers": [ "Claude" ], "breadth": "written by Claude from model knowledge without web access - no source was read, every claim is a lead to verify", "pass": 2, "wave": 1, "engine": "claude" }, "metaModel": { "id": "THING-Q3332922", "registryId": "vr.tr.radioactive-decay", "name": "radioactive decay", "version": "0.2.0-wave.1", "entryKind": "thing", "family": "Thing Registry", "domain": [ "ACT.PRC" ], "status": "research-draft" }, "canonicalUrl": "https://ver.cy/models/thing/q3332922/", "model": { "registry_id": "vr.tr.radioactive-decay", "name": "radioactive decay", "purpose": "Let an agent explain radioactive decay by mode, half-life, detection, uses and radiation safety, without facilitating harm.", "definition": "The spontaneous transformation of an unstable atomic nucleus into a more stable one by emitting radiation, such as alpha, beta or gamma radiation, neutrons or through isomeric transition, at a rate characterised by the half-life.", "what_it_is_for": "Nuclear physics, dating, medicine and energy.", "affordances": [ "explain decay modes", "calculate half-life and activity", "describe uses such as radiocarbon dating", "find radiation safety information" ], "distinguishing_features": [ "Spontaneous and random", "Characterised by half-life", "Emits ionising radiation", "Used in dating and medicine" ], "appearance": "Not visible; detected with Geiger counters and spectrometers.", "visual_identification": [ "Alpha, beta and gamma radiation", "Half-lives", "Chemical reactions do not change nuclei" ], "physical_properties": [], "families_and_kinds": [ "alpha decay", "beta decay", "gamma emission and isomeric transition", "neutron emission", "spontaneous fission" ], "related_models": [ { "relation": "is a kind of", "target": "particle decay", "why": "category" }, { "relation": "is measured in", "target": "becquerel", "why": "unit" }, { "relation": "is used in", "target": "radiometric dating and nuclear medicine", "why": "applications" }, { "relation": "produces", "target": "ionising radiation", "why": "effect" } ], "identifiers": [ { "scheme": "SI unit", "value_or_pattern": "becquerel (Bq)", "note": "activity" } ], "standards_and_regulation": [ "IAEA radiation safety standards", "National radiation protection law" ], "failure_modes_and_hazards": [ "Radiation exposure", "Misinformation about radiation risks", "Facilitating misuse of radioactive materials" ], "in_scope": [], "out_of_scope": [], "characteristics": [] }, "sources": [], "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "physics", "name": "Physics", "description": "Decay modes.", "rationale": "Modes differ.", "layers": [ { "id": "mode", "name": "Mode", "description": "Alpha, beta, gamma.", "findings": [ { "id": "mode-finding", "name": "Mode", "description": "Decay mode.", "questions": [ { "text": "Which decay mode does this nuclide undergo?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "What is the product?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "halflife", "name": "Half-life", "description": "Rate.", "findings": [ { "id": "halflife-finding", "name": "Half-life", "description": "Half-life.", "questions": [ { "text": "What is the half-life, according to nuclear data tables?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "text": "How much remains after a given time?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "applications", "name": "Applications", "description": "Uses.", "rationale": "Decay is useful.", "layers": [ { "id": "dating", "name": "Dating", "description": "Radiometric dating.", "findings": [ { "id": "dating-finding", "name": "Dating", "description": "Radiometric dating.", "questions": [ { "text": "How is decay used to date rocks or organic material?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "What are the uncertainties?", "kind": "measurement" } ] } ] }, { "id": "medicine", "name": "Medicine", "description": "Nuclear medicine.", "findings": [ { "id": "medicine-finding", "name": "Medicine", "description": "Nuclear medicine.", "questions": [ { "text": "How are radioactive tracers used in medicine, in general terms?", "kind": "definition" }, { "text": "Is the user asking about their own treatment?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "safety", "name": "Safety", "description": "Radiation protection.", "rationale": "Safety comes first.", "layers": [ { "id": "protection", "name": "Protection", "description": "Time, distance, shielding.", "findings": [ { "id": "protection-finding", "name": "Protection", "description": "Radiation protection.", "questions": [ { "text": "What protection principles do radiation authorities recommend?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "Which dose limits apply?", "kind": "provenance" } ] } ] }, { "id": "found", "name": "Found source", "description": "Suspicious material.", "findings": [ { "id": "found-finding", "name": "Found source", "description": "Found radioactive material.", "questions": [ { "text": "Has someone found a suspicious radioactive source or symbol?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "Should they keep away and contact authorities immediately?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "limits", "name": "Limits", "description": "Agent conduct.", "rationale": "No harmful help.", "layers": [ { "id": "misuse", "name": "Misuse", "description": "No facilitation.", "findings": [ { "id": "misuse-finding", "name": "Misuse", "description": "Misuse limits.", "questions": [ { "text": "Does the request seek to acquire or misuse radioactive materials?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "text": "How should the agent decline?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] }, { "id": "myths", "name": "Myths", "description": "Misinformation.", "findings": [ { "id": "myths-finding", "name": "Myths", "description": "Radiation myths.", "questions": [ { "text": "Is a claim about radiation risk accurate, according to official sources?", "kind": "provenance" }, { "text": "How can it be explained calmly?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "openQuestions": [ "Should decay modes be separate entries?", "How should nuclear data tables be linked?", "How should safety guidance be localised?" ], "statistics": { "bundles": 4, "layers": 8, "findings": 8, "questions": 16 } }, "draft": { "generator": "vr.draft.v3", "status": "draft-generated", "researched": false, "archetype": "abstract concept", "method": "Written from the archetype playbook - what this kind of thing needs beyond identity and provenance - and from the structure that recurred across 6,333 models already researched by two engines. Applied to this entry by rule. No source was read for this thing and no claim here is researched. This entry carries no facets of its own, so they were inferred from its domain - a guess about a whole domain applied to one thing.", "facetsInferred": true, "nextPass": "A researcher replaces this draft with a sourced specification. Treat every sentence below as a proposal to argue with.", "purpose": "Give an agent a durable, checkable way to recognise a radioactive decay, record what state it is in, and decide what may be done with it.", "whatItIs": "Let an agent explain radioactive decay by mode, half-life, detection, uses and radiation safety, without facilitating harm.", "characteristics": { "substance": "activity", "origin": "conceptual", "agency": "inert" }, "whatYouCanDoWithIt": [ "observed and measured" ], "distinguishingFeatures": [ "Names folded into this entry, which a task may need to split apart again: neutron emission, delayed decay, isomeric transition, double neutron emission, three neutron decay, four neutron decay, three proton decay, double alpha decay, internal conversion, cluster decay, proton emission, double proton emission.", "12 finer distinctions are held as aliases rather than separate entries, because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it.", "Described in 51 Wikipedia languages, which is a measure of how widely the thing is known, not of how important it is." ], "openQuestionsForResearch": [ "Which of the bundles below does a real task actually need, and which are ceremony?", "What does this thing have that the facets do not capture at all?", "Which neighbouring kind is most often confused with a radioactive decay, and on what evidence are they told apart?" ], "whatItIsMadeOf": "something that happens over time", "physicalCharacter": [ "Does nothing on its own; everything it does, something else did to it.", "These come from the domain this entry sits in rather than from the entry itself, so treat them as a first guess about the whole domain applied to one thing." ], "whatCanBeDoneWithIt": [ "observe it, measure it, record its state" ], "howItIsRecognised": [ "Nothing to see. What is recognised is an instance of it, and which instances count is exactly what is argued about." ], "relatedModels": [ { "relation": "covers", "note": "Finer kinds folded into this entry because telling them apart needs a task that asks for it. Each is a model waiting to be split out when one does.", "targets": [ "neutron emission", "delayed decay", "isomeric transition", "double neutron emission", "three neutron decay", "four neutron decay", "three proton decay", "double alpha decay", "internal conversion", "cluster decay", "proton emission", "double proton emission" ] } ], "standing": "Described in 51 Wikipedia languages, which measures how widely it is written about rather than how important or how common it is. 12 finer distinctions are held inside this entry as names rather than as separate models.", "structure": { "bundles": [ { "id": "identity-and-classification", "name": "Identity, naming and classification", "description": "How an agent tells one radioactive decay from another, and a radioactive decay from things that resemble it.", "rationale": "Recognition comes before every other claim. Without stable identity nothing else in the model can be trusted to be about the same thing twice.", "layers": [ { "id": "naming-and-identifiers", "name": "Names and identifiers", "description": "The names this thing goes by and the identifiers that survive translation and time.", "findings": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases", "name": "Preferred name, aliases and local names", "description": "Which name to use, which names mean the same thing, and which merely sound similar.", "questions": [ { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the name of a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the name of a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "preferred-name-and-aliases-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the name of a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers", "name": "Stable identifiers and external keys", "description": "Identifiers that keep pointing at this kind of thing across systems and languages.", "questions": [ { "id": "stable-identifiers-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an identifier for a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an identifier for a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stable-identifiers-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an identifier for a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "classification-and-granularity", "name": "Classification and granularity", "description": "Where a radioactive decay sits among kinds, and how finely a task needs to cut it.", "findings": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents", "name": "Kind, parents and neighbouring kinds", "description": "The classes this thing belongs to and the ones it is next to.", "questions": [ { "id": "kind-and-parents-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the kind of a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the kind of a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "kind-and-parents-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the kind of a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features", "name": "Distinguishing features", "description": "What separates a radioactive decay from the things most often confused with it.", "questions": [ { "id": "distinguishing-features-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes what distinguishes a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about what distinguishes a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "distinguishing-features-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once what distinguishes a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "state-and-lifecycle", "name": "State and lifecycle", "description": "The states a radioactive decay passes through and the events that move it between them.", "rationale": "Most decisions about a thing depend on what state it is in now, which is a claim with a time on it, not a property.", "layers": [ { "id": "lifecycle-stages", "name": "Lifecycle stages", "description": "From coming into existence to ceasing to be one of these.", "findings": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions", "name": "Stages and transitions", "description": "The stages worth naming and what moves a radioactive decay between them.", "questions": [ { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the lifecycle of a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the lifecycle of a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "stages-and-transitions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the lifecycle of a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "observations-and-status", "name": "Observations and current status", "description": "What is observed about a radioactive decay, how often and by whom.", "findings": [ { "id": "observation-record", "name": "Observation record", "description": "How an observation of a radioactive decay is recorded so that it can be superseded rather than overwritten.", "questions": [ { "id": "observation-record-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes an observation of a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about an observation of a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "observation-record-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once an observation of a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "process-and-outcome", "name": "Process, inputs and outcome", "description": "How a radioactive decay proceeds, what it needs and what it leaves behind.", "rationale": "An activity is known by its steps and its results, and both have to be recordable while it is still running.", "layers": [ { "id": "steps-and-sequence", "name": "Steps and sequence", "description": "The steps of a radioactive decay, their order and what may run in parallel.", "findings": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions", "name": "Steps, preconditions and completion", "description": "What has to be true before each step of a radioactive decay and what marks it done.", "questions": [ { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a step of a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a step of a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "steps-and-preconditions-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a step of a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-results", "name": "Inputs, resources and results", "description": "What a radioactive decay consumes and what it produces.", "findings": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs", "name": "Inputs, outputs and side effects", "description": "The resources a radioactive decay takes and the results it leaves, wanted or not.", "questions": [ { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the inputs and results of a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the inputs and results of a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "inputs-and-outputs-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the inputs and results of a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "definitions-in-contest", "name": "Definitions and who holds them", "description": "What radioactive decay is taken to mean, and by whom.", "rationale": "When a field disagrees about a concept, the disagreement is the content. A model that picks one definition silently destroys the information.", "layers": [ { "id": "competing-definitions", "name": "Competing definitions", "description": "The main readings and the traditions behind them.", "findings": [ { "id": "definition-map", "name": "Definitions and their holders", "description": "Each definition with the school or body that holds it.", "questions": [ { "id": "definition-map-q01", "text": "Which definitions of radioactive decay are in use, and which tradition or body holds each?", "kind": "definition" }, { "id": "definition-map-q02", "text": "What turns on the difference between them in practice?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] }, { "id": "operationalisation", "name": "Operationalisation", "description": "How it is measured or applied when it has to be.", "findings": [ { "id": "operational-record", "name": "Measures and proxies", "description": "Instruments and indicators used to stand in for it.", "questions": [ { "id": "operational-record-q01", "text": "How is radioactive decay operationalised or measured in practice, and by what instrument?", "kind": "measurement" }, { "id": "operational-record-q02", "text": "What does that operationalisation leave out, and when does that matter?", "kind": "boundary" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "instances-and-use", "name": "Instances, use and consequence", "description": "What counts as an instance of radioactive decay and what follows from calling something that.", "rationale": "Applying a concept is an act with consequences, so a model must say what the label licenses and what it does not.", "layers": [ { "id": "instances", "name": "What counts as an instance", "description": "Clear cases, borderline cases and non-cases.", "findings": [ { "id": "instance-tests", "name": "Tests for an instance", "description": "What would settle whether something falls under it.", "questions": [ { "id": "instance-tests-q01", "text": "What would settle whether something is an instance of radioactive decay?", "kind": "boundary" }, { "id": "instance-tests-q02", "text": "Which borderline cases are argued about, and on what grounds?", "kind": "definition" } ] } ] }, { "id": "consequence", "name": "Consequence of application", "description": "Rights, duties or decisions that follow from the label.", "findings": [ { "id": "consequence-record", "name": "What the label licenses", "description": "What an agent may do once something is classified this way.", "questions": [ { "id": "consequence-record-q01", "text": "What follows practically once something is treated as radioactive decay?", "kind": "action" }, { "id": "consequence-record-q02", "text": "What must an agent not infer from the label alone?", "kind": "action" } ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "provenance-and-evidence", "name": "Provenance, evidence and time", "description": "Where every claim about a radioactive decay came from and when it held.", "rationale": "A claim without a source and a time cannot be superseded, only overwritten, and an agent that overwrites loses the ability to explain itself.", "layers": [ { "id": "source-and-authority", "name": "Source and authority", "description": "Who said it, on what evidence, and how strongly.", "findings": [ { "id": "claim-provenance", "name": "Claim provenance and confidence", "description": "The authority behind each claim about a radioactive decay and how confident it is.", "questions": [ { "id": "claim-provenance-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes a claim about a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about a claim about a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "claim-provenance-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once a claim about a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] }, { "id": "time-and-versions", "name": "Time, versions and supersession", "description": "When a claim was true, when it was learnt, and what replaced it.", "findings": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession", "name": "Validity period and supersession", "description": "How an old claim about a radioactive decay is retired without being erased.", "questions": [ { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q01", "text": "What identifies and describes the validity of a claim about a radioactive decay, and in what units or vocabulary?", "kind": "definition", "answer_data": [ "identifiers", "types and classes", "values with units", "explicit unknowns" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q02", "text": "Who or what asserted this about the validity of a claim about a radioactive decay, by which method, and when was it true?", "kind": "provenance", "answer_data": [ "authority", "method", "evidence", "event time", "knowledge time" ] }, { "id": "validity-and-supersession-q03", "text": "What may an agent decide or do once the validity of a claim about a radioactive decay is known, and what must it refuse?", "kind": "action", "answer_data": [ "permitted actions", "preconditions", "refusals", "escalation" ] } ] } ] } ] } ] }, "statistics": { "bundles": 6, "layers": 12, "findings": 14, "questions": 38 } } } }