Abstract
This chapter presents the most important radioactive decay modes with an emphasis on specific radioactive decays that are of importance to medical physics. The chapter discusses in detail the standard modes of radioactive decay: alpha, beta minus, beta plus, electron capture, gamma, and internal conversion, and also provides examples of their use in medicine. The chapter also includes a brief description of proton and neutron decay as well as spontaneous fission as more exotic examples of radioactive decay despite their limited importance to medical physics. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the Segre Chart of the Nuclides that presents an orderly catalog of all known stable as well as radioactive nuclear species, provides useful basic data for all known nuclides, and indicates the possible decay paths for radionuclides.
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