Suspicious entries

A record of what inconsistencies() still flags after repair() has done what it can, on a full ENSDF distribution (299 mass chains, 3168 nuclides).

These are not bugs in this package. They are places where the evaluated file contradicts itself, and each is listed with what the contradiction is, what the value would have to be to resolve it, and why the repair machinery declined to act. Nothing here is corrected in the data.

Regenerate with:

from nook.survey import survey, inconsistencies
from nook.repair import repair

fixed, changes = repair(survey())
for state, why in inconsistencies(fixed):
    print(state.nuclide, why)

Diagnosed but not repaired

²¹⁰Ac — S(n) is 5000 keV too low

The strongest case in the set. ²¹⁰Ac appears in three failing loops, always as the same term:

loop	anchor	residual
neutron surface	²¹⁰Ra	5000 keV (38 σ)
neutron surface	²¹⁰Ac	5000 keV (30 σ)
proton surface	²¹⁰Ac	4992 keV (47 σ)

Three independent identities implicating one value is a strong localisation. The file reads S(n) = 3130 ± 80 keV; closure requires 8130 keV. Two further arguments agree: ²⁰⁹Ac has S(n) = 9990 keV at N = 120, and the odd-N neighbour should sit roughly 2 MeV lower — 8130 does, 3130 does not.

3130 → 8130 is a single-digit substitution. That is deliberately outside the repair vocabulary: unlike a sign or a power of ten, a digit error has no unique inverse, so accepting one would mean trusting the closure arithmetic to invent a value rather than to confirm a hypothesis.

¹¹²Nb — almost certainly a sign flip, but unprovable

S(n) = −3500 ± 400 keV, with a half-life of 33 ms. Neutron emission from an unbound state is prompt, so the two cannot both be right, and the rest of ensdf.112 has exactly this error twenty times over.

It is not repaired because its loops cannot be evaluated: they need ¹¹²Mo and ¹¹¹Nb, and every Q-value for both is flagged SY. With no measured constraint there is no evidence, and a repair without evidence is a guess — even a very good one.

Flagged, with no identity to constrain them

¹¹⁷Ru — Q(α) = −91800 keV

An order of magnitude outside any physical range; the value is likely −9180 keV. Neither identity involves Q(α), so nothing here can confirm it. It stays as the file has it.

¹¹²Cd, ¹¹²Sn — S(p) after repair

Both had S(n) and S(p) negated and both were repaired. They no longer appear. Listed here only because earlier versions of this document, written before the proton-surface identity existed, reported them as unfixable.

Extrapolations, not errors

²⁴N, ³³Ne and ³⁹Mg each have a slightly negative S(n) alongside a half-life of tens to hundreds of nanoseconds:

nuclide	S(n)	T½
²⁴N	−500 keV	52 ns
³³Ne	−900 keV	180 ns
³⁹Mg	−130 keV	180 ns

Every one of those S(n) values carries the SY operator: extrapolated from systematics, not measured, with an uncertainty that straddles zero. The flag is telling you the number is unreliable, not that it is wrong — the true values are presumably small and positive. These are never repaired, because rewriting an extrapolation would be fabrication rather than correction.

Small residuals: the evaluation disagreeing with itself

⁹⁹Sr and ¹⁰⁰Sr fail the proton-surface identity by 55 and 98 keV. This is a different character from everything above — no transcription error produces a 55 keV offset.

The identity holds to 0–2 keV for every other Rb → Sr pair from A = 85 to 104:

A=85:0  A=86:0  A=87:0  A=88:0  A=89:0  A=90:0  A=91:0  A=92:0  A=93:1
A=94:0  A=95:1  A=96:0  A=97:0  A=98:0  A=99:55 A=100:98 A=101:2 A=102:2
A=103:58 A=104:2

So it is isolated to three neutron-rich nuclides where the masses are least well determined, and it is consistent with the A=98/99/100 chains having adopted marginally different mass inputs for the same nuclide. (A=103 shows the same 58 keV effect but sits under the 5 σ threshold, because the uncertainties there are larger.)

Worth knowing rather than worth fixing: if you are differencing separation energies in this region at the 50 keV level, the inputs are not internally consistent to that precision.

Summary

nuclide	quantity	issue	why not repaired
²¹⁰Ac	S(n)	3130 keV, should be 8130	digit substitution, no unique inverse
¹¹²Nb	S(n)	−3500 keV with a 33 ms half-life	neighbours are all SY; no loop to test against
¹¹⁷Ru	Q(α)	−91800 keV	no identity constrains Q(α)
²⁴N, ³³Ne, ³⁹Mg	S(n)	slightly negative, ns half-lives	SY extrapolations straddling zero
⁹⁹Sr, ¹⁰⁰Sr	S(p)/S(n)/Q(β⁻)	55–98 keV non-closure	too small for any transcription error