Why do free neutrons decay

Article Google Scholar. Serebrov, A. C 97 , Yue, A. Fornal, B. Download references. Article 10 NOV Research Highlight 05 NOV Article 03 NOV Washington University in St. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Advanced search. Skip to main content Thank you for visiting nature. You have full access to this article via your institution.

Download PDF. References 1. PubMed Article Google Scholar 2. Article Google Scholar 3. Article Google Scholar 4. There are two variables undetermined that depend on the physics of the decay. The maximum possible energy will occur when both the proton and neutrino recoil directly opposite the electron's direction. If we pick the direction of the electron 2 variables , we have a one dimensional problem with three unknown momenta and just two equations, energy conservation and momentum conservation.

We will still need to maximize the electron momentum to get the answer. Lets work with the three independent variables , , and. The three energies are. Search Search. The free neutron decays into a proton, an electron, and an antineutrino with a half-life of about seconds Source: scienceblogs. See previous: Interactions of Neutrons with Matter. See above: Neutron.