Nuclear magnetic resonance of anti-parallel spin neutrons (of total spin zero for the neutron-spin pair), plus a proton of spin . Therefore, the tritium total nuclear spin value is again , just like for the simpler, abundant hydrogen isotope, H nucleus (the "proton"). The NMR absorption frequency for tritium is also similar to that of H. In many other cases of "non-radioactive" nuclei, the overall spin is also non-zero. For example, the nucleus has an overall spin value . A non-zero spin formula_2 is always associated with a non-zero magnetic dipole moment, formula_3, via the relation formula_4 where "γ" is the gyromagnetic ratio.
Radioactive decay in a process called Big Bang nucleosynthesis. These lightest stable nuclides (including deuterium) survive to today, but any radioactive isotopes of the light elements produced in the Big Bang (such as tritium) have long since decayed. Isotopes of elements heavier than boron were not produced at all in the Big Bang, and these first five elements do not have any long-lived radioisotopes. Thus, all radioactive nuclei are, therefore, relatively young with respect to the birth of the universe, having formed later in various other types of nucleosynthesis in stars (in particular, supernovae), and also during ongoing interactions between stable isotopes