Beta Decay

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BETA DECAY


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(In this article, and in several others, u means up quark and d means down quark. Similarly, u with a bar on top means anti-up quark and d with a bar on top means anti-down quark.)

A particular type of radioactivity is known as beta-decay, which occurs in three forms known as beta-minus decay, beta-plus decay and electron capture. In each form, protons convert into neutrons, or vice-versa. 

For instance, in beta-minus decay, one of the neutrons in a nucleus is converted into a proton with the emission of an electron and an electron antineutrino. This process may be written as:




As a neutron has the quark composition (udd) and a proton has the quark composition (uud), at the level of individual quarks, a beta-minus decay must involve a down quark converting into an up quark as follows:




This quark conversion, therefore, lies at the heart of all beta-minus decay processes. A quick check confirms that an electric charge is conserved in this process. The charge on the left-hand side of the equation is -(1/3) e, while the sum of the charges of the particles on the right-hand side is +(2/3) e - e + 0 = -(1/3) e also.

In beta-plus decay, a proton is converted into a neutron with the emission of a positron and an electron neutrino:




In electron capture, a proton is converted into a neutron when it captures an electron, and subsequently emits an electron neutrino:

 

 



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Lavanya


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