In reply to Harry Veeder's message of Sat, 23 Mar 2013 04:04:55 -0400: Hi, [snip] >> The weak force doesn't actually present a barrier. It presents a chance that >> something will occur. Electrons and protons don't normally combine into >> neutrons >> because their combined mass is inadequate. It's 782 keV short of the mass of >> a >> free neutron. > >>However, they could combine to form a reduced mass neutron as part >> of the nucleus of a heavier atom. This does in fact happen with some >> isotopes. >> It's called "electron capture" (EC). In this case, even though the mass of >> the >> proton is also reduced, the net result (an isotope of the previous element in >> the periodic table), is sufficiently more stable than the initial isotope to >> more than make up for the difference. >> Regards, >> >> Robin van Spaandonk >> >> http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html >> > >ok, so they don't normally combine because the rules of QM forbid it >or at least say it is highly improbable below some energy/temperature >level.
It's actually classically forbidden. 1 baseball + a second baseball does not make 3 baseballs. >So QM provides the "barrier", but I presume it becomes more likely if >you substantially increase the kinetic energy of the two particles. >The necessary kinetic energy is converted into the extra mass >required to form the neutron and this is, roughly speaking, what the >W-L theory proposes. Only very roughly. They don't actually explain where the extra energy comes from. Note that *extra* is about 1 1/2 times the mass of an electron. > >However, it would be interesting to speculate if the kind of low >energy electron capture you describe could happen more frequently. >In other words, If reduced mass neutrons could be made easily (from a >free electron and free proton/deuteron) would this one "miracle" be >able to explain observations without the additional miracles required >by the W-L theory. Note that they can only be made *in* another nucleus, or at the very least, very, very close to it, such that the ensuing neutron(s) are immediately captured. This is included in Horace's theory, see http://www.mtaonline.net/~hheffner/DeflationFusion.pdf and also a possibility with Hydrino fusion. Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
