Point particle of point charges cannot be maintained in an equilibrium configuration solely by the electrostatic interaction of the charges. In quantum mechanics, there is a distinction between an elementary particle (also called "point particle") and a composite particle. An elementary particle, such as an electron, quark, or photon, is a particle with no internal structure. Whereas a composite particle, such as a proton or neutron, has an internal structure (see figure). However, neither elementary nor composite particles are spatially localized, because of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle. The particle wavepacket always occupies a nonzero volume. For example, see atomic orbital: The electron
Particle decay to further decay. The term is typically distinct from radioactive decay, in which an unstable atomic nucleus is transformed into a lighter nucleus accompanied by the emission of particles or radiation, although the two are conceptually similar and are often described using the same terminology. Particle decay is a Poisson process, and hence the probability that a particle survives for time "t" before decaying is given by an exponential distribution whose time constant depends on the particle's velocity: All data is from the Particle Data Group. Note that this section uses natural units, where formula_4 The lifetime of a particle