Question?

[Little Bang]

Does anyone know if there has ever been an instance of a proton spontaniously changing into a neutron?

[infamous]

Does anyone know if there has ever been an instance of a proton spontaniously changing into a neutron?

Wouldn't that require it to combine with an electron? The first thing that comes to mind is a situation where both particles are subjected to great amounts of pressure, as in the interior of a star.....................Infy

[Little Bang]

Yes, it would require an electron. Obviously I'm looking for something strange, but strange things have happened before.

[Mohit Pandey]

Does anyone know if there has ever been an instance of a proton spontaniously changing into a neutron?

 

I think it is veeerrry difficult to do that. I will be surprised to know if any knows about that.

[Little Bang]

I guess my question came from thinking about the very early universe. When matter first condensed from energy or whatever. There must have been a certian percentage of neutrons formed because we had some helium along with all the hydrogen. That implies that the energy or whatever condensed into all the possible forms of quarks, so I was wondering why there were so many more protons formed than neutrons?

[ronthepon]

What about positron emmision nuclear decay?

 

A proton does change to a neutron there.

 

Further, I've heard that free neutrons are more unstable as compared to protons. Half life perios is around 1000 seconds maybe.

Not sure about neutron decay, I'll have to check up.

[Little Bang]

Nuclear decay is not quite what I had in mind. The half life of a proton is theorized at 10^30 years. The free neutron is 10 to 15 minutes.

[Jay-qu]

To combine two charged particles would need a tremendous amount of energy, so it wouldnt be much of a surprise to learn that more protons remained protons but a few where transformed into neutrons. Further, they would have had to combine with protons within the shortened half-life, to become more stable and remain as neutrons.

[Qfwfq]

A free proton is certainly very stable but there are certainly conditions in which protons can give neutrons, including during nuclear fusion which is how elements other than hydrogen formed (in the stars).