Can a muon turn into an electron?

However, a particle has rest energy equal to its mass, but now there’s now way a muon at rest can pass on all of its energy to an electron at rest.

What does muon 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.

Can muon decay into electron and photon?

Muons decay predominantly into an electron 1 and a pair of neutrinos, μ + → e + ν ¯ μ ν e , with photons possibly irradiated by one of the charged particles involved in the process.

Why are muons unstable?

The muon is unstable because it decays into an electron and two neutrinos in about 2μs. But a muon is not in some sense an excited electron. Both particles are excitations in a quantum field and they are both as fundamental as each other.

Why is muon heavier than electron?

They also carry a positive charge. Muons are like electrons, but only heavier. Muons are therefore also elementary particles, like electrons. Because the muon is 200 times heavier than the electron, the muon’s orbit is 200 times closer to the proton in muonic hydrogen than that of the electron in regular hydrogen.

Is muon a heavy electron?

Muons are about 200 times heavier than the electron. Whereas electrons live forever, muons exist for only about two microseconds—or two millionths of a second—before they decay. If a muon were produced at the exact same time a gun was fired, the muon would decay long before the bullet left the barrel.

What is the difference between an electron and a muon?

Muons are about 200 times heavier than electrons; muons are about 100 MeV, whereas electrons are about 0.5 MeV. It follows that whereas an electron is stopped in the ECAL, a muon just ploughs through it and into the muon chamber, as illustrated by this cartoon from this blog post about the muon.

What is a muon and why is it important?

Muons – unstable elementary particles – provide scientists with important insights into the structure of matter. They provide information about processes in modern materials, about the properties of elementary particles and the nature of our physical world.

What is the importance of muons?

Muons can help detect dangerous nuclear material and see into damaged nuclear power plants. Scientists use muons for archeological purposes to peer inside large, dense objects such as the pyramids in Egypt.