The atomic nucleus contains most of the mass in our daily lives. The lifetime of a free neutron is unstable because of a process called alpha decay. The emission of a protons, an electron, and an anti-neutrino is involved in the process of alpha decay. There are a lot of common decay processes.
There are some significant uncertainties about the neutron lifetime and the decay inside a nucleus that lead to a protons emission. This is a type of emission that lasts for a long time. Only a few of the neutron rich nuclei have the ability to emit alpha- delayed protons. There are only a few cases of a radioactive nucleus with 4 protons and 7 neutrons. The rate of decay for 11 Be was found to be very high. Their work is in a journal.
A key to understanding the decay of 11 Be is the discovery of an exotic near-threshold resonance. It's a remarkable and not fully understood example of quantum many-body physics. Particles are involved in many-body physics. The physics that apply to each particle can be hard to comprehend.
The value of the decay of 11 Be is explained by the near-threshold resonance in 11 B. The results show a two-step process and away from more exotic explanations. Scientists are able to narrow down theories of unstable nuclear systems by understanding this state. Questions about the nature of the decay process are raised.
Nuclear physicists didn't expect 11 Be to decay due to its radioactive nature. There were speculations on the nature of the decay after the large value was observed. There is a very narrow resonance in 11 B.
Physicists at Florida State University used a radioactive 10 Be beam to observe a narrow resonance in 11 B. Complex quantum many-body physics of unstable systems are highlighted by the position of the resonance.
More information: E. Lopez-Saavedra et al, Observation of a Near-Threshold Proton Resonance in 11B, Physical Review Letters (2022). DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.012502 Journal information: Physical Review Letters
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