What happens when other generations of particles mix?

[questionposter]

What happens if you have heavy electrons in a normal atom, or heavy neutrons n a nucleus, or different electrons in the same relative location?

Edited November 10, 2011 by questionposter

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

What are "heavy electrons" and "heavy neutrons"?

[questionposter]

What are "heavy electrons" and "heavy neutrons"?

 

Ya'know, those tau and mau and etc types of particles. I guess I know what happens when 3 different generations of neutrinos mix, but idk about these other scenarios. Have scientists tried bombarding one generation of electrons with the next generation to see what the difference is?

Edited November 10, 2011 by questionposter

[DrRocket]

Ya'know, those tau and mau and etc types of particles. I guess I know what happens when 3 different generations of neutrinos mix, but idk about these other scenarios. Have scientists tried bombarding one generation of electrons with the next generation to see what the difference is?

 

 

Google is your friend.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muons

 

"The muon was the first elementary particle discovered that does not appear in ordinary atoms. Negative muons can, however, form muonic atoms (also called mu-mesic atoms), by replacing an electron in ordinary atoms. Muonic hydrogen atoms are much smaller than typical hydrogen atoms because the much larger mass of the muon gives it a much smaller ground-state wavefunction than is observed for the electron. In multi-electron atoms, when only one of the electrons is replaced by a muon, the size of the atom continues to be determined by the other electrons, and the atomic size is nearly unchanged. However, in such cases the orbital of the muon continues to be smaller and far closer to the nucleus than the atomic orbitals of the electrons.

 

A positive muon, when stopped in ordinary matter, can also bind an electron and form an exotic atom known as muonium (Mu) atom, in which the muon acts as the nucleus. The positive muon, in this context, can be considered a pseudo-isotope of hydrogen with one ninth of the mass of the proton. Because the reduced mass of muonium, and hence its Bohr radius, is very close to that of hydrogen^{[clarification needed]}, this short-lived "atom" behaves chemically — to a first approximation — like hydrogen, deuterium and tritium."

 

Note that muons decay rather quickly so this atom will not hang around very long.

 

 

[swansont]

You can't have multiple electrons in the same location. They are spin-1/2 and follow the Pauli exclusion principle. An electron and a muon or tau, no problem, for as long as the other particles exist.

[questionposter]

Google is your friend.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muons

 

"The muon was the first elementary particle discovered that does not appear in ordinary atoms. Negative muons can, however, form muonic atoms (also called mu-mesic atoms), by replacing an electron in ordinary atoms. Muonic hydrogen atoms are much smaller than typical hydrogen atoms because the much larger mass of the muon gives it a much smaller ground-state wavefunction than is observed for the electron. In multi-electron atoms, when only one of the electrons is replaced by a muon, the size of the atom continues to be determined by the other electrons, and the atomic size is nearly unchanged. However, in such cases the orbital of the muon continues to be smaller and far closer to the nucleus than the atomic orbitals of the electrons.

 

A positive muon, when stopped in ordinary matter, can also bind an electron and form an exotic atom known as muonium (Mu) atom, in which the muon acts as the nucleus. The positive muon, in this context, can be considered a pseudo-isotope of hydrogen with one ninth of the mass of the proton. Because the reduced mass of muonium, and hence its Bohr radius, is very close to that of hydrogen^{[clarification needed]}, this short-lived "atom" behaves chemically — to a first approximation — like hydrogen, deuterium and tritium."

 

Note that muons decay rather quickly so this atom will not hang around very long.

 

 

 

That's weird that I wasn't able to find that stuff, but wait, how does a muon decay if it's not composed of smaller particles? But otherwise those other properties make sense, I'd imagined that a more massive electron would be closer to the nucleus, but what about both normal electrons and muons in the same system at once?

 

You can't have multiple electrons in the same location. They are spin-1/2 and follow the Pauli exclusion principle. An electron and a muon or tau, no problem, for as long as the other particles exist.

 

I know, but, how does the whole "changing neutrino" thing work then?

Edited November 10, 2011 by questionposter

[mississippichem]

Google is your friend.

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muons

 

"The muon was the first elementary particle discovered that does not appear in ordinary atoms. Negative muons can, however, form muonic atoms (also called mu-mesic atoms), by replacing an electron in ordinary atoms. Muonic hydrogen atoms are much smaller than typical hydrogen atoms because the much larger mass of the muon gives it a much smaller ground-state wavefunction than is observed for the electron. In multi-electron atoms, when only one of the electrons is replaced by a muon, the size of the atom continues to be determined by the other electrons, and the atomic size is nearly unchanged. However, in such cases the orbital of the muon continues to be smaller and far closer to the nucleus than the atomic orbitals of the electrons.

 

A positive muon, when stopped in ordinary matter, can also bind an electron and form an exotic atom known as muonium (Mu) atom, in which the muon acts as the nucleus. The positive muon, in this context, can be considered a pseudo-isotope of hydrogen with one ninth of the mass of the proton. Because the reduced mass of muonium, and hence its Bohr radius, is very close to that of hydrogen^{[clarification needed]}, this short-lived "atom" behaves chemically — to a first approximation — like hydrogen, deuterium and tritium."

 

Note that muons decay rather quickly so this atom will not hang around very long.

 

Shame that heavy leptons have such short life times. Mu-mesmic hydrogen would make for some really interesting NMR (nuclear magnetic resonance) experiments as there would be some wacky shielding effects.

 

I've always fantasized what chemistry would be like if there was the possibility of stable heavy lepton bonds.

[DrRocket]

I've always fantasized what chemistry would be like if there was the possibility of stable heavy lepton bonds.

 

Get a life. You need better fantasies.

 

http://retardmedia.com/uploads/2007/11/Catherine-Zeta-Jones-1(05).jpg

[mississippichem]

Get a life. You need better fantasies.

 

http://retardmedia.com/uploads/2007/11/Catherine-Zeta-Jones-1(05).jpg

 

You are a mathematician! You're the one who needs a life.

[swansont]

I know, but, how does the whole "changing neutrino" thing work then?

 

AFAIK it's because the flavor eigenstates do not have the same basis as the mass eigenstates.

[imatfaal]

I know, but, how does the whole "changing neutrino" thing work then?

AFAIK it's because the flavor eigenstates do not have the same basis as the mass eigenstates.

 

Wasn't the original raison d'etre of OPERA Gran Sasso (before the pesky superluminal neutrino results) to provide a little experimental evidence and observation of the flavour oscillation of neutrinos. The neutrinos were generated through a process ending in muon decay in CERN and thus set off as mostly mu-neutrinos - OPERA was set up to investigate the percentage of incidents which were tau-neutrinos; this would allow a check on the theoretically derived probabilities of oscillation