In an alpha decay, an atom emits an alpha particle. An alpha particle consists of 2 protons and 2 neutrons: this means that during this kind of decay, the original atom loses 2 protons and 2 neutrons from its nucleus.
This also means that the atomic number Z of the element (the atomic number is the number of protons in the nucleus) decreases by 2 units in the process, while the mass number A (the mass number is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons) decreases by 4 units.
