What does the muon decay into?
Muons are unstable elementary particles and are heavier than electrons and neutrinos but lighter than all other matter particles. They decay via the weak interaction. Thus all muons decay to at least an electron, and two neutrinos.
What does a muon neutrino decay into?
Muons are unstable and decay into their lighter counterparts, electrons, in about 2.2 microseconds. Nonelementary, or composite, particles can also change and emit neutrinos. This is especially important in the protons and neutrons that make up atoms.
Why do muons decay into electrons?
The reason muons (and taus) decay while electrons do not decay is that there is no charged particle that is lighter than an electron. The muon is about 200 times heavier than an electron and by the rules of the weak nuclear force the muon can decay into electron and 2 neutrinos.
Can a muon decay into a pion?
Since the charged pions decay into two particles, a muon and a muon neutrino or antineutrino, then conservation of momentum and energy give the decay products definite energies. This contrasts with the three-particle decay of the neutral pion in which the emitted particles have a range of energies and momenta.
What type of particle is a muon?
The muon is one of the fundamental subatomic particles, the most basic building blocks of the universe as described in the Standard Model of particle physics. Muons are similar to electrons but weigh more than 207 times as much.
Are electrons muons?
Muons are similar to electrons but weigh more than 207 times as much. That’s about the difference between an adult person and a small elephant. The muon is part of the lepton group. Leptons are a type of fundamental particle.
Can muons decay into quarks?
No, muons can’t decay into quarks because quarks are confined; the final product cannot be quarks, but rather composite particles made of quarks, such as mesons and baryons. The lightest mesons are the pions, which are already heavier than the muon, so any such decay is forbidden by energy conservation.
Are muons in atoms?
The only radioactive part of the atom is the muon. Therefore, the atom decays with the muon’s half-life, 1.52 microseconds (1.52×10−6 seconds).