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The free neutron has a mass of 939 565 413.3 eV/c 2, or 939.565 4133 MeV/c 2. This mass is equal to 1.674 927 471 × 10 −27 kg, or 1.008 664 915 88 Da. [4] The neutron has a mean-square radius of about 0.8 × 10 −15 m, or 0.8 fm, [20] and it is a spin-½ fermion. [21] The neutron has no measurable electric charge.
It does not ionize atoms in the same way that charged particles such as protons and electrons do (exciting an electron), because neutrons have no charge. However, neutron interactions are largely ionizing, for example when neutron absorption results in gamma emission and the gamma ray (photon) subsequently removes an electron from an atom, or a ...
The neutron has a positively charged core of radius ≈ 0.3 fm surrounded by a compensating negative charge of radius between 0.3 fm and 2 fm. The proton has an approximately exponentially decaying positive charge distribution with a mean square radius of about 0.8 fm. [15]
The neutrino [a] was postulated first by Wolfgang Pauli in 1930 to explain how beta decay could conserve energy, momentum, and angular momentum ().In contrast to Niels Bohr, who proposed a statistical version of the conservation laws to explain the observed continuous energy spectra in beta decay, Pauli hypothesized an undetected particle that he called a "neutron", using the same -on ending ...
Since neutrons are neutral particles, they do not have to overcome Coulomb repulsion as they approach charged targets, unlike protons and alpha particles. [12] Neutrons can deeply penetrate matter. [12] The magnetic moment of the neutron has therefore been exploited to probe the properties of matter using scattering or diffraction techniques. [12]
If an atom has more electrons than protons, then it has an overall negative charge and is called a negative ion (or anion). Conversely, if it has more protons than electrons, it has a positive charge and is called a positive ion (or cation). The electrons of an atom are attracted to the protons in an atomic nucleus by the electromagnetic force.
An up quark has electric charge + + 2 / 3 e, and a down quark has charge − + 1 / 3 e, so the summed electric charges of proton and neutron are +e and 0, respectively. [a] Thus, the neutron has a charge of 0 (zero), and therefore is electrically neutral; indeed, the term "neutron" comes from the fact that a neutron is ...
The antineutron is the antiparticle of the neutron with symbol n. It differs from the neutron only in that some of its properties have equal magnitude but opposite sign.It has the same mass as the neutron, and no net electric charge, but has opposite baryon number (+1 for neutron, −1 for the antineutron).