- #1
SteveDC
- 39
- 0
I'm learning about beta decay and as I understand in beta decay we get:
neutron → proton + electron
And since all these have spin 1/2 we have that the conservation of angular momentum is not conserved.
The neutrino with spin 1/2 is proposed to also exist in the process to solve this so that:
neutron → proton + electron + neutrino
But I don't understand how this conserves angular momentum since haven't you now gone from a spin 1/2 particle one side to three spin 1/2 particles the other side so the spin has changed by 1. Shouldn't the change in spin need to be zero to conserve angular momentum?
neutron → proton + electron
And since all these have spin 1/2 we have that the conservation of angular momentum is not conserved.
The neutrino with spin 1/2 is proposed to also exist in the process to solve this so that:
neutron → proton + electron + neutrino
But I don't understand how this conserves angular momentum since haven't you now gone from a spin 1/2 particle one side to three spin 1/2 particles the other side so the spin has changed by 1. Shouldn't the change in spin need to be zero to conserve angular momentum?