4 ms·
Ah, but how do you capture a neutral particle with a magnetic field? (As I understand, they're a little bit magnetic because their constituent quarks are charg
by ben509 8y ago
Ah, but how do you capture a neutral particle with a magnetic field?
(As I understand, they're a little bit magnetic because their constituent quarks are charged.)
- convery 8y agoExactly, everything's magnetic if you have a large enough magnet. I'm more interested in how they limit such a field =P
- fsh 8y agoThe magnet inside your compass isn't charged either. Magnetic fields act on magnetic moments, not on charge (unless the charge is moving which gives you a Lorentz force).
- pitaj 8y ago> unless the charge is moving which gives you a Lorentz force Also spin
- TeMPOraL 8y ago> (unless the charge is moving which gives you a Lorentz force) Isn't this always the case, though? I mean, two objects not moving relative to each other is a very specific state and not something that can be held in practice without a negative feedback loop on their relative velocities.
- pdonis 8y ago> As I understand, they're a little bit magnetic because their constituent quarks are charged. More than a little bit. The neutron's magnetic moment is about 2/3 the magnitude of the proton's, and of opposite sign.
- hanniabu 8y agoHmmm, if neutron's are of the opposite sign, is this what keeps the electrons repelled enough stay on the "outside" in orbit?
- fsh 8y agoNo. The gross structure of an atom is only determined by the electrostatic interaction between the charge of the electrons and of the protons in the nucleus. The interaction between the magnetic moments of the electrons and of the nucleus (which is due to both protons and neutrons) leads to hyperfine structure on a much smaller energy scale.
- pdonis 8y ago> if neutron's are of the opposite sign, is this what keeps the electrons repelled enough stay on the "outside" in orbit? No, but it does affect which spin states of nuclei have the lowest energy. For example, the ground state (lowest energy state) of a deuterium nucleus has spin 1--spin of the proton and neutron are parallel--because the opposite signs of the proton and neutron magnetic moments make that state have a lower energy (more tightly bound).
- phkahler 8y agoHow does it even have sign? I thought it was a vector.
- pdonis 8y agoThe sign refers to the direction that the vector points relative to the particle's spin vector. The proton's magnetic moment is positive, meaning it points in the same direction as the proton's spin. The neutron's magnetic moment is negative, meaning it points in the opposite direction to the neutron's spin.