An Element of Atomic Number Zero?

Abstract

In this article I address the problem of the status of the element of atomic number zero or “neutronium”, a suggestion proposed by Andreas von Antropoff in 1925 seven years before James Chadwick's announcement of the existence of the neutron, by analyzing Philip Stewart's arguments to defend such a proposal. On this basis, I will conclude that it is more cautious from both a scientific and a philosophical standpoint, to think of the neutron just as a structural component of an element.