Beta radiation involves the transformation of an up quark in a proton into a down quark, resulting in the formation of a neutron and the emission of a positron, a process known as anti-beta decay. This transformation occurs in proton-rich nuclei where the energy required to maintain the nucleus exceeds the energy released by converting a proton to a neutron. The reaction is deemed "energetically favorable" when the energy released surpasses the energy needed for the transformation, ensuring compliance with conservation laws such as charge, baryon number, and lepton number. Quantum mechanics predicts the probability of such interactions but does not provide a detailed mechanism for the quark transformation.
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We don't know.StanEvans said:My questions are,
1. Why does the quark change?
2. How does it change and how does it change charge?
Why would it be more energetically favourable?BvU said:Hello Stan,
Just to make sure: you now have a correct answer from Nugatory, but was that what you wanted to know or could you be helped with a more down-to Earth answer in the category: beta decay happens because it's energetically favorable ?
Ok thank you for helpingNugatory said:We don't know.
Quantum mechanics predicts the probability of interactions like this one, but it doesn't provide a detailed picture of what's happening during the interaction.
The decay you are describing (proton to neutron) is actually an anti-beta decay - it emits a positron instead of an electron. You can see this just by considering charge conservation; the particles going in have a net charge of +1 so the particles coming out must also have that charge.StanEvans said:Why would it be more energetically favourable?
Ok thank you that helps a lotNugatory said:The decay you are describing (proton to neutron) is actually an anti-beta decay - it emits a positron instead of an electron. You can see this just by considering charge conservation; the particles going in have a net charge of +1 so the particles coming out must also have that charge.
This process happens in a nucleus that is proton-rich, meaning that it takes more energy to hold the nucleus together than it would if it had one more neutron and one fewer proton. Thus, if a proton were to be converted into a neutron, energy would be released. If the amount of energy released is greater than the amount of energy required to create a positron plus the amount of energy required to turn a proton into a neutron we say that the reaction is "energetically favorable" - it can happen without violating conservation of energy or requiring us to add energy to the system.
Generally if a reaction is energetically favorable it will happen eventually.
and violates no other conservation laws (charge, baryon number, lepton number...)Nugatory said:Generally if a reaction is energetically favorable
it will happen eventually.