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What causes the neutron to drip instead of beta decay? Isn't the neutron bound by the strong force, just like the proton? So why would it drip, but if some of t
by ars 3y ago
What causes the neutron to drip instead of beta decay? Isn't the neutron bound by the strong force, just like the proton? So why would it drip, but if some of the neutrons were actually protons, now it doesn't drip?
- pfdietz 3y agoThe binding energy of a neutron becomes progressively weaker as the nucleus becomes more neutron rich. At the neutron drip line, the next neutron is not bound, so it's energetically possible for it to just escape. There is also a proton drip line, where nuclei can decay from their ground state by proton emission. This would be slower as the proton must surmount a potentiel barrier, just like an escaping alpha particle does in nuclei that can undergo alpha decay. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_drip_line https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_drip_line
- marcosdumay 3y agoAs a coarse approximation, the more of the same type of nucleon you have on the nucleus, the more force you need to keep it from escaping, and that force comes from other nucleons. (But yes, that means turning into a proton also releases a lot of energy; that coarse approximation can't tell what happens first.) That's why atoms stable atoms have a near balanced number of protons and neutrons, that only slowly gets pushed into the "more neutrons" direction as they grow.