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Decay Products
Name: Zackie R.
Status: student
Age: 13
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: 2001-2002
Question:
When a proton or a neutron are not in a nucleus they die
very quickly, so what happens to that dead particle? According to the
laws of physics they just can't disappear.
Replies:
Zackie,
The particles do not die. It is possible for particles to "decay" into
other particles. One example is a neutron decaying into a set of three
particles: a proton, an electron, a neutrino. It is possible for particles
to join with other atoms. It is also possible for lone proton to join with
an electron, thus becoming a hydrogen atom. A free proton or neutron does
not disappear. It finds a way to become part of an atom or to change into
different particles.
Dr. Ken Mellendorf
Illinois Central College
"Free" neutrons have a half life of ~12 min and decay by emission of a beta
particle (electron), presumably yielding a proton. The energies can be found
in any "Table of Neuclides" in any handbook of physics and / or chemistry.
All the conservation laws are obeyed (energy/momentum/etc.), so there are no
"dead" particles remaining. The proton, and the deuteron both are stable, at
least on any time scale less than "cosmic".
The mass ~3 isotope tritium has a half life of about 12 years.
None of the particles disappear.
Vince Calder
Protons outside of nuclei have not been observed to do anything. They just
stay on being protons. A neutron by itself can "decay" into a neutron, a
positron, and an antineutrino. Nothing disappears, it just isn't a neutron
any more.
Richard E. Barrans Jr., Ph.D.
Assistant Director
PG Research Foundation, Darien, Illinois
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Update: June 2012
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