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zaybu
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Are there laws forbidding that reaction? Which ones?
Thanks
Thanks
zaybu said:Could an electron emit a photon, which in turn split into neutrino/anti-neutrino pairs?
fzero said:An electron could emit a photon, but the photon does not couple directly to neutrinos. A very energetic electron could emit a Z boson, which can decay to a neutrino and anti-neutrino. The electron would need an energy larger than the Z mass, so you'd typically only find these electrons in particle accelerators or cosmic rays, the electrons in atoms don't emit Z particles. Furthermore, around <20% of Z-bosons decay to neutrino pairs, while most of them would decay to hadron jets.
Parlyne said:Even if the electron had enough energy, this would violate conservation of momentum unless the initial electron was way off its mass shell.
fzero said:Typically the Z is off mass shell, in which case you don't strictly need energies above the Z mass, but the probability is low if you're too far below that scale. Spontaneous Z emission should be pretty kinematically unfavorable compared to production via annihilation anyway. Somehow I think these details aren't very useful to the OP.
kloptok said:Another conservation law is the conservation of lepton (electron) number. This will be violated for any neutrino-antineutrino pair. To conserve electron number at least a neutrino-antineutrino pair as well as an additional (electron)-neutrino have to be produced.
Parlyne said:overall lepton number [...] known to be violated [...] at least non-perturbatively by sphaelerons
the_house said:Out of curiosity, do you have a good source for this that I can read? A quick google search indicates that, contrary to my previous understanding, sphaleron processes could possibly cause a violation of baryon and lepton number, but the first papers I came across seem speculative about whether it actually happens (e.g., in the lifetime of the universe). It certainly hasn't been confirmed experimentally, so is it really "known to be violated"?
the_house said:Sorry, I wasn't trying to derail the thread. I was actually just wondering if you could recommend a good reference.
Parlyne said:Lepton flavor number and overall lepton number are already known to be violated (the former by neutrino mixing, the later at least non-perturbatively by sphaelerons). Electric charge, on the other hand, has never been observed to fail to be conserved. And, given that the electron is the lightest charged particle, that is the more important effect here.
Electrons are fundamental particles that have a specific mass and charge. They are not capable of spontaneously splitting into other particles, including neutrinos and anti-neutrinos, due to the laws of conservation of energy and charge.
No, electrons cannot spontaneously split into neutrino/anti-neutrino pairs under any known conditions. This process would violate the fundamental laws of physics.
The weak nuclear force is responsible for interactions between subatomic particles, including electrons and neutrinos. It ensures that electrons do not spontaneously split into neutrino/anti-neutrino pairs, as such a process would require a violation of the weak force's conservation laws.
No, there is no evidence to support the idea of electrons spontaneously splitting into neutrino/anti-neutrino pairs. All observations and experiments in particle physics have consistently shown that electrons remain intact and do not split into other particles.
While we cannot induce electrons to spontaneously split into neutrino/anti-neutrino pairs, scientists have been able to create neutrino/anti-neutrino pairs in high-energy particle collisions. This process requires a significant amount of energy and is not the same as spontaneous splitting of particles.