Protons don’t become neutrons, but their collective charge is screened. This collective charge of all the protons in the nucleus is where the coulomb barrier comes from.
When the coulomb barrier is suppressed, there must be a reduction of charge in each and every proton in the nucleus. As this positive charge is reduced, the attraction between protons and neutrons are decreased. The nucleus will become more unstable. See the Semi-empirical mass formula as the Coulomb force is reduced. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-empirical_mass_formula The nucleus gains more energy as the screening increases. As the energy of the nucleus increases, the nucleus will eventually fission to relieve this energy in order to become more stable. This is not to say that fusion is not also going on too. But the light elements with Z less than that of nickel come mostly from fission. Chees: axil On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 8:15 AM, OrionWorks - Steven Vincent Johnson < [email protected]> wrote: > I'm sure I missed something crucial here. > > How do protons in the nucleus lose their positive charge, and as such > presumably transform into neutrons? > > IOW, what is the theorized mechanism(s) involved here? > > Regards, > Steven Vincent Johnson > www.OrionWorks.com > www.zazzle.com/orionworks > tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/newvortex/ > >
