As the title says, is the production of a positron and a neutron from a proton by the help of electromagnetic radiation possible?
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asked Dec 5, 2019 at 5:28
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$\begingroup$ Do you mean by bombarding the proton with a high energy photon (aka gamma ray)? BTW, your reaction isn't balanced: there needs to be an electron neutrino emitted as well (or an antineutrino absorbed), to conserve lepton number. I don't think your reaction is possible, but I'm not certain. $\endgroup$– PM 2RingCommented Dec 5, 2019 at 7:04
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$\begingroup$ Previously by the same poster: physics.stackexchange.com/questions/134005/…? $\endgroup$– dmckee --- ex-moderator kittenCommented Dec 5, 2019 at 16:19
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$\begingroup$ I've expanded my answere to the above-linked question to cover more veins of evidence. $\endgroup$– dmckee --- ex-moderator kittenCommented Dec 5, 2019 at 18:34
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1 Answer
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Short-short answer: "No."
Your proposal fails to conserve lepton number, fails to account for the observed energy distribution of the products, and is contradicted by direct observation of "inverse beta decay" events in large, low-background detectors (which would see the incident photon flux if such a thing were responsible, and would block any photon of the necessary energy from getting anywhere near the fiducial volume in any case).
answered Dec 5, 2019 at 17:55
dmckee --- ex-moderator kittendmckee --- ex-moderator kitten
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