Can a muon decay into a pion?

Can a muon decay into a pion?

Neutral pions decay electromagnetically to photons, by annihilating their valence quark-antiquark pair. Charged pions do not have that option: they have to decay into at least one other charged particle, i.e. an electron or muon.

Why do pions decay to muon?

The heavier muon has a larger left-handed component, and its decay is less suppressed. Hence, pions usually decay into muons, although they have less phase space available.

What does a muon neutrino decay into?

Muons are unstable and decay into their lighter counterparts, electrons, in about 2.2 microseconds. Nonelementary, or composite, particles can also change and emit neutrinos. This is especially important in the protons and neutrons that make up atoms.

What is the mass of a pion?

Mass. π ± : 139.57039(18) MeV/c2.

Can muons decay into quarks?

No, muons can’t decay into quarks because quarks are confined; the final product cannot be quarks, but rather composite particles made of quarks, such as mesons and baryons. The lightest mesons are the pions, which are already heavier than the muon, so any such decay is forbidden by energy conservation.

What do pions decay to?

gamma rays
Neutral pions decay into gamma rays (π0 → 2γ) with a mean life of 8.4·10−17 s at rest. The latter can produce electron-positron pairs which subsequently undergo bremsstrahlung, which again can produce electron-positron pairs, and so on, as long as the photon energy exceeds 1.02 MeV.

What is pion decay?

The primary decay mode of a Pion, with probability 0.999877, is a purely Leptonic decay into an anti- Muon and a Muon Neutrino. Also observed, for charged Pions only, is the very rare “Pion beta decay” (with probability of about 10−8) into a neutral Pion plus an Electron and Electron anti-Neutrino.

Is a pion a lepton?

Hadrons are particles that feel the strong nuclear force, whereas leptons are particles that do not. The proton, neutron, and the pions are examples of hadrons. The electron, positron, muons, and neutrinos are examples of leptons, the name meaning low mass. Leptons feel the weak nuclear force.

What particles can a positive pion decay into?

Almost always, a positive pion decays into a muon and a muon neutrino, but in about one-in-12,000 instances, the positive pion decays into a positron and an electron neutrino.