On Sun, Jul 22, 2012 at 3:16 PM, <[email protected]> wrote:
Unfortunately AFAIK, all the energy of the p-e-p reaction is carried by the
neutrino which of course escapes, hence no net measurable energy effect. :(
>
Yes, indeed. For the following calculation, I'm getting exactly 1.44 MeV,
the amount thought to be carried off by the neutrino:
((2*(mass proton)+(mass electron)) - (mass deuteron))*c^2
Some interesting points to note, however:
- This would then get you deuterium, which would allow the the
proton-proton chain to continue to 3He and beyond.
- 1.44 MeV is not all that big in comparison to 26.73 MeV, the energy
for the full chain.
- According to the article, the ratio of pep to pp is 1:400. But if the
resulting diproton takes billions of years to beta+ decay, I assume pep
result, D, would dominate.
- There might be a parameter such as magnetism that influences this and
subsequent steps in the proton-proton chain that we don't fully understand.
I'm probably neglecting an important detail, here.
Eric
