Can a particle decay into a heavier particle?

1) A PARTICLE MUST DECAY TO TWO OR MORE PARTICLES. Since motion energy is positive, particle 2 must have mass energy less than or equal to the mass energy of particle 1. Therefore the decay is impossible unless the two particles have equal mass.

How can fundamental particles decay?

Fundamental particles cannot split apart, because they have no constituents, but rather they somehow turn into other particles. It turns out that when a fundamental particle decays, it changes into a less massive particle and a force-carrier particle (always a W boson for fundamental particle decays).

Why are some decays more likely than others?

Some types of particles interact with each other strongly, others less so. The stronger is the interaction between these types of particles, the more likely the decay is to occur — and thus the more common is that type of decay, and the shorter is the “lifetime” of the parent particle.

Why are most particles unstable?

Particles can be unstable because there are certain interactions, or forces, that can transmute one particle into an equivalent or equivalent collection of other particles. One restriction is that the various conservation laws must hold. For example charge, baryon number, lepton number, angular momentum, energy, etc.

Why can’t protons decay?

In particle physics, proton decay is a hypothetical form of particle decay in which the proton decays into lighter subatomic particles, such as a neutral pion and a positron. Therefore, protons will not decay into other particles on their own, because they are the lightest (and therefore least energetic) baryon.

Will all matter eventually decay?

No. Stable atoms do not decay. The only problem is that it is very difficult to tell whether a particular isotope is stable or just extremely long at decaying.

Why is the muon unstable?

The muon is unstable because it decays into an electron and two neutrinos in about 2μs. But a muon is not in some sense an excited electron. Both particles are excitations in a quantum field and they are both as fundamental as each other.

Can a particle decay to two or more particles?

1) A PARTICLE MUST DECAY TO TWO OR MORE PARTICLES. This is why every decay that we see in nature involves two or more particles emerging from a single one. It follows simply from the laws of nature that the total energy and total momentum must stay constant in any physical process (or as physicists say, “energy and momentum are conserved.”)

Why do heavier particles decay faster than lighter particles?

It’s because there is more “phase space” available (and channels of decays). Basically, there are two effect.s First, the heavier an elementary particle is, the more particles it can decay into (people say that there are more “decay channels”). A muon can decay into an electron plus a neutrino but an electron can’t decay into a muon.

Why are energy and momentum conserved in decay?

This is why every decay that we see in nature involves two or more particles emerging from a single one. It follows simply from the laws of nature that the total energy and total momentum must stay constant in any physical process (or as physicists say, “energy and momentum are conserved.”)

Can a particle with a mass m1 decay to 2 and 3?

A particle (“parent”) with a mass m 1 may only decay to particles 2 and 3 (“children”) if the sum of masses of the children is less than the mass of the parent: m 2 plus m 3 must be less than m 1. This is a simple consequence of the law of nature that the total energy must stay constant in any physical process.