A succession of radioactive decays in which a daughter can itself be unstable. For a closed unit-branching chain with stable , the population rate equations are , and . They conserve . Sequential radioactive decay gives the two-member transient solution; coincident nuclear decay constants require the continuous limit containing .
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A decay chain, also known as a radioactive decay series, refers to a sequence of radioactive decays in which a parent nuclide decays into one or more daughter nuclides. This process continues until a stable nuclide is formed. Each step in the decay chain involves the transformation of one radioactive isotope into another, which may also be radioactive, until all unstable isotopes have decayed into stable ones.
