Fundamentals of Physics Extended (10th Edition)

Published by Wiley
ISBN 10: 1-11823-072-8
ISBN 13: 978-1-11823-072-5

Chapter 44 - Quarks, Leptons, and the Big Bang - Problems - Page 1366: 50c

Answer

The decay scheme is $p\longrightarrow \hspace{2mm}e^+ \hspace{2mm}+ \hspace{2mm}\nu_e$ where $p$ = proton $e^+$ = positron $\nu_e$ = electron-neutrino This does not violate linear momentum conservation.

Work Step by Step

It would be sufficient to verify the linear momentum conservation law in the rest frame of the proton. In the following diagram, we have a proton at rest and it has initial linear momentum = $\vec{0}$ It decays to $e^+$ with linear momentum $\vec{m}$ and $\nu_e$ with linear momentum $-\vec{m}$. Thus, the total final linear momentum is $\vec{m}+(-\vec{m})=\vec{0}$ Thus, the decay scheme does not violate linear momentum conservation.
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