IPP’s Explanation of Electron Capture

 

(Excerpted from page 4-26 to 4-29 of online book, Infinite Particle Physics.)

 

Electron Capture ―How Electron & Proton Interact to produce a Neutron plus Nue 

 

In Fig. 4-23, I gave a rudimentary explanation of the beta minus decay of 36Kr85 to 37Rb85, suggesting that the process was effected by a charge-exchange between an outrigger neutron and a visiting void-pair, yielding a proton plus an electron. Now, let’s look closely at the inverse process, an electron charge-exchanging with a proton to produce a neutron plus a void-pair. Here are some necessary sub-details of this scenario:

• To understand why an electron is able to supply a –void to a charge-exchange process, we should perceive that our term “replacement defect” suggests that we can consider an electron to be a combination, or fusion, of two half-charge defects, a –excess merged into a –void. Hence, as a preliminary to a charge-exchange, these two components of the electron (–excess & –void) need to be split apart (so one component can move relative to the other).
• This splitting requires sufficient excess local shrinkage in the electron’s vicinity to allow its –excess component to acquire, momentarily, an independent identity, i.e. to become a –muon. This metamorphosis to IPP’s half-charge muon would seem to require at least 105/2 = 52.5 MeV of undedicated shrinkage.
• But we must remember that this mass figure applies to a particle stretching to infinity in equal radial increments of shrinkage, and we only require the –excess to exist long enough for the –void component of the electron to charge-exchange with the proton. Clearly, much less shrinkage is required to initiate this brief metamorphosis. In fact, experiments tell us that protons can convert to neutrons by electron capture whenever there is a nearby source of mass-energy greater than 0.79 MeV, an amount which is just sufficient mass-energy increment to allow the neutron to form (938.27 + 0.51 + 0.79 = 939.57 MeV). Of course, this calculation ignores the variable momentum imparted to the nue, also produced in this conversion.
• This electron splitting and charge-exchange process may be clearer when diagrammed, as I do in the following schematic:

 

Fig. 4-32 Charge-Exchange Electron-Splitting:   p + e → n + nue

 

 

Conversion Analysis Of Fig. 4-32:  We shall suppose that an electron’s center passes just a few lattice units away from the +x defect of a proton, while this proton is in its p1 state, as shown above (9ü, 9ü, 9ü spacings, mass 933.11 MeV). We shall also suppose that there is sufficient momentary local undedicated shrinkage to “split” the electron into -void & -excess components, as shown, and that the electron’s strong charge-presence interrupts the proton’s internal charge-exchange sequence, and induces an external charge-exchange with the split electron. Due to the huge mass disparity between the electron’s components (–void <<1meV, –excess ≈ 52.5 MeV), only the –void enters into the charge-exchange, while the –excess moves slowly outwardly, because of the mutual repulsion of the two split components.

Now, when the electron’s –void component undergoes its charge-exchange with this +x defect, the result is a -c-void 1ü closer to the particle center, as shown by the dotted tab. This change converts the proton to a neutron in its low-mass n1 state (spacings 8ü, 9ü, 9ü, mass 866.93 MeV), releasing momentary shrinkage in the amount of 933.11 - 866.93 = 66.18 MeV. This shrinkage sustains the –excess component of the split electron long enough for the +void, released by the charge exchange, to be attracted outwardly towards it.

 

Where Does The Electron Splitting Energy Come From?  The most plausible source for the 52.5 MeV of mass-energy required for momentary –muon creation is in the proton → neutron conversion process, itself. We can find clues for this possibility by looking at Figs. 2-8 & 2-9 on page 2-10 & 11, where I show the masses of the various charge-exchange states of the proton & neutron. Notice that, although the average mass of the six neutron states exceeds that of the proton by 939.57 – 938.28 = 1.29 MeV, three of the neutron states are much lower mass than the proton (p1) states:

 

                                   State #5 (p1 → n2-lo) = 933.11 – 874.69 = 58.42 MeV

                                   State #6 (p1 → n1-lo) = 933.11 – 866.93 = 66.18 MeV

                                   State #1 (p1 → n1-lo) = 933.11 – 866.93 = 66.18 MeV

 

You will see that these mass-energy differences exceed our requirement (52.5 MeV) for creating a –muon from the electron’s –excess component, so the potential exists for freeing the electron’s –void to undergo a charge-exchange with one of the proton’s +c-voids, providing this exchange causes the resulting neutron to begin its charge-exchange cycle with one of its low-mass states. Of course, there is the usual Heisenberg cart-before-the-horse problem, where the muon-creating shrinkage must appear before the resulting neutron’s charge-exchange makes it available, so we must look to other processes in the immediate vicinity for the source of this shrinkage. Here is a possibility:

 

Ambient Neutrons Provide The Initiating Mass-Energy:  Neutrons in the immediate vicinity of this proton obviously will be undergoing six-state charge-exchange cycles. Half of these states will be successive lo-n1, lo-n2, & lo-n1 states. Hence, during this half of the charge-exchange cycle, there will be excess (undedicated) shrinkage in the proton’s vicinity equal to the neutron mass minus the average mass of these states, or:

 

939.57 – (2 x 866.93 +8.72.69) / 3 = 70.72 MeV

 

Several Outcomes are to be Expected in p → n Conversions:  This neutron-producing charge-exchange scenario may seem straightforward up to this point, but in considering the interaction between the outwardly moving +void and the lingering –excess component, I find it hard to choose among several alternatives:

1. They capture each other to become a void-pair (nue): This alternative requires that the –excess component continues in existence long enough to arrest the outward movement of the charge-exchanging +void, and cause it go into orbit around the much-heaver -excess. This excess/void system will then convert to a void-pair when the newly-created neutron establishes its normal charge-exchange cycle, thereby reducing the amount of local undedicated supplied shrinkage to below the excess-creating value.
2. They fail to capture each other, and both escape as ±voids (numu & @numu): This alternative requires that the geometry of the various ambient charge influences is such as to endow the charge-exchanging +void with momentum in excess of the capture value.
3. They merge, and annihilate each other: When opposite-polarity voids and excesses merge they “heal” the lattice of defects. In this scenario, the shrinkage released by this annihilation is close enough to the newly created neutron that most of it will be absorbed by the increased demands of its charge-exchange cycle, as it moves from the low to high mass states. Any shrinkage in excess of this requirement will go to produce a photon plus particle momentum, or divide into equal & opposite momentum influences on close-by particles on opposite sides of the annihilation center.