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I've been trying to understand why adding neutrons to a nucleus will eventually destabilize it; I would like to know if the following explanation is correct:
The neutron has a slightly higher mass than the proton. But higher mass translates into higher energy because ## E = mc^2 ##. However, systems tend to evolve toward lower energies, like a ball rolling down a hill and coming to rest in a depression.
A free neutron will decay (in about 10 min) into a proton, an electron, and an anti-electron neutrino. This reaction doesn't happen to neutrons inside stable atoms (see below). But in a neutron rich atom, the nucleus can transition to a lower state if a neutron turns into a proton, because the proton is lighter than the neutron.
The reason that all neutrons don't just spontaneously decay into protons is that both protons and neutrons are fermions, meaning that no more than one can occupy any given quantum state. After a point, a neutron decaying into a proton will result in a proton with high enough energy to compensate for the mass difference between the proton and neutron, because there are no low energy slots left for the newly formed proton to occupy.
What do you guys think?
Later edit: I found this post later on, which seems to agree with what I'm saying? https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-are-neutron-rich-isotopes-unstable.625062/
The neutron has a slightly higher mass than the proton. But higher mass translates into higher energy because ## E = mc^2 ##. However, systems tend to evolve toward lower energies, like a ball rolling down a hill and coming to rest in a depression.
A free neutron will decay (in about 10 min) into a proton, an electron, and an anti-electron neutrino. This reaction doesn't happen to neutrons inside stable atoms (see below). But in a neutron rich atom, the nucleus can transition to a lower state if a neutron turns into a proton, because the proton is lighter than the neutron.
The reason that all neutrons don't just spontaneously decay into protons is that both protons and neutrons are fermions, meaning that no more than one can occupy any given quantum state. After a point, a neutron decaying into a proton will result in a proton with high enough energy to compensate for the mass difference between the proton and neutron, because there are no low energy slots left for the newly formed proton to occupy.
What do you guys think?
Later edit: I found this post later on, which seems to agree with what I'm saying? https://www.physicsforums.com/threads/why-are-neutron-rich-isotopes-unstable.625062/
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