*>Bohr "orbit." It takes energy -- a lot of energy, apparently, -- to >bring an electron and a proton into close proximity*.
If the negatively charged particle (muon) is heavy then the barrier to fusion is low. Being so very heavy and long lived, if a H- ion finds a positive particle it will readily fusion with it. On Fri, May 13, 2011 at 6:32 PM, <mix...@bigpond.com> wrote: > In reply to Abd ul-Rahman Lomax's message of Tue, 10 May 2011 22:39:21 > -0400: > Hi, > [snip] > >Well, if it were that easy to make neutrons, we'd be making them all > >the time. What happens when a slow proton meets a slow electron, > >assuming they are free, is that a hydrogen atom is formed, not a > >neutron. The electron cannot reach the nucleus (a proton in this > >case), it stays at a distance, and the "ground state" is the minimum > >Bohr "orbit." It takes energy -- a lot of energy, apparently, -- to > >bring an electron and a proton into close proximity. > > > ...it's not just a matter of bringing them together. They do that > themselves > millions of times a second in ordinary Hydrogen atoms. The problem is that > even > when they are together, they are still about 0.8 MeV short of enough energy > to > form a neutron. > > Regards, > > Robin van Spaandonk > > http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html > >
