13 ms·

Can someone explain? - if neutral atomic nuclei with internal electrons can exist, why are they not visible in particle accelarators? - what atoms are

• ehvatum 5y ago
  Electron capture indicates conversion of protons and electrons to neutrons and electron neutrinos. The core of a star is already very hot and further collapse raises the temperature, so we’re probably talking about photodisintegration of any heavy nuclei into alpha particles, as electron capture process runs.
• AtlasBarfed 5y ago
  A particle accelerator smashes streams of particles head on, but can it simulate properly the internal structure of a star before supernova where unbelievable forces are occurring in 3 dimensions in relative stability? I'd think to simulate you basically need to prevent the electrons from going anywhere, and the only place to go is inside the nucleus, where the strict rules of quantum mechanics and particle physics dictate they get merged with protons to form neutrons. Do we have anything besides tokamaks for smushing things together? Tokamaks seem to peak out at low-energy fusion reactions, but all I read about tokamaks is engineering focused on net-positive fusion.