Or in other words which forces keep electrons in orbitals and prevent it from flying away or crashing into the nucleus according to modern understanding?

    • Dave.@aussie.zone
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      3 months ago

      I looked it up, after 6.6 x 10e28 years or so they are theorised to decay into neutrinos and photons.

        • AmalgamatedIllusions
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          ·
          3 months ago

          Charge conservation would indeed be violated, which is why this decay is not expected. Dave is mistaken: the half-life they’re referring to is an experimental lower-bound, not a actual expected value.

        • Dave.@aussie.zone
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          edit-2
          3 months ago

          Presumably there is a transformation of charge to energy which is then carried away by the photon, but all of this is beyond my understanding of the theories involved.

          • AmalgamatedIllusions
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            3 months ago

            Charge conservation would unambiguously be violated, which is why this decay is not expected. The half-life you quote is an experimental lower-bound.

    • AmalgamatedIllusions
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      3 months ago

      They are not expected to decay. The half-life they’re thinking of is a lower-bound based on current measurements, not an actual expected half-life.