In reply to Harry Veeder's message of Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:28:00 -0400: Hi, [snip] >If a neutron can be made decay while in a deuteron then it seems to me >the warming of the lattice is best explained >by the motion arising from the mutual repulsion of the protons. >Thermalization of gammas is not necessary. > When a deuteron is formed from a neutron and a proton, mass is converted into energy (2.2 MeV). It is this loss of energy that prevents a neutron already in a deuteron from decaying. Decay only happens when it results in the release of energy, and the neutron bound in D has already lost too much for it to decay. Regards,
Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
