We recently touched on the subject of radioactivity in class, and we learned about all the types of radiation an atom can emit(gama/beta-+/delta), and what their products are.
What I don’t understand is in beta- a neutron turns into 1 proton and 1 electron, but in beta+ a proton turns into a neutron, how is that possible [(n=>p+e) ==(p=>n)(e?????)]? Aren’t mater and energy subject to the laws of conservation or am I missing something? Where is the electron? Thank you in advance
In: Physics
They are subject to conservation; what you’re missing is that in beta+ decay a positron is also emitted: (p=>n & e+) in sort of your notation. The positron is basically an electron but antimatter version, with a positive charge, balancing that conservation law.
(Bear in mind, to fully conserve everything you also have to look at the spin charge, which is one of the things that led people to believe a “neutrino” was also being emitted.)
There’s another variant of beta+ decay called electron capture, where the reaction is more like (p & e => n) which is also balanced, just backwards.
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