Can an electron decay into a neutrino?

Title:Electron Decay Abstract: The electron would decay into a photon and neutrino if the law of electric charge conservation is not respected. Such a decay would cause vacancy in closed shells of atoms giving rise to emission of x-rays and Auger electrons.

Can an electron decay to two photons?

If an electron decays to two photons, it would be violating the law of conservation of charge. A photon is a quantum of energy. It does not have any charge.

Why is the neutrino necessary in beta decay?

A neutrino is emitted in beta+ decay, also called positron emission. The reason for this is that in positron emission, a proton decays into a neutron and a boson — you can verify this by doing some basic charge conservation.

Why can’t an electron decay to a muon and a photon?

The electron has 1 unit negative charge and the neutrinos have zero charge. Thus the negative charge on the electron cannot be destroyed. Besides, the electron and the positron are the most stable leptons around and are regarded as fundamental particles that cannot decay into simpler substances.

Do neutrinos decay into photons?

The lightest neutrino is the lightest known fermion, but the only known particles that are lighter, to which it could potentially decay, are bosons (the photon and the graviton.) Therefore it cannot decay at all: one cannot start with one fermion and end up with only bosons.

Can electrons decay into neutrinos and photons?

Scientists have placed new limits on how often electrons decay into neutrinos and photons, a reaction that—if it occurred—would violate the law of charge conservation.

What type of particles can change and emit neutrinos?

Nonelementary, or composite, particles can also change and emit neutrinos. This is especially important in the protons and neutrons that make up atoms. In a beta decay, a neutron (made of one up quark and two down quarks) can transform into a proton (made of two up quarks and one down quark), an electron, and an electron antineutrino.

What happens when a muon decays into an electron?

A common example is when the muon decays into an electron, an electron antineutrino, and a muon neutrino (μ → e + ¯ν e + ν μ ). Muons are unstable and decay into their lighter counterparts, electrons, in about 2.2 microseconds.

How are neutrinos made?

Neutrinos are born in various decays, which is when a particle changes from one type into another. There are a couple of ways this can happen. Sometimes, elementary particles (which are the ones that can’t be broken down any further) transform into different, lighter particles, often creating neutrinos in the process. This is particle decay.