scarlettjazz Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 I'm told:free neutron decays to proton and releases e-,how do I know if this is a strong/weak/electromagnetic interaction?The only information I'm told is that an electron is produced in the decay of a free neutron into a proton. The question is state the name of the exchange particle. To know this, I suppose I have to figure out what kind of interaction this is, but I don't get how. I thought originally that it was a strong interaction because it involves nucleons, but the mark scheme says the answer is W boson... why?!Thanks Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
HiggsHunter Posted April 6, 2012 Report Share Posted April 6, 2012 The question relates to neutron beta decay, which is a weak interaction, so indeed the exchange particle is the W-boson. (One of the down quarks in the proton is transformed into an up quark plus a W-boson, which decays to an electron plus an electron antineutrino. Only the weak interaction can change the flavour of quarks) Reply Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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