Electron “Lifespan” is at Least 5 Quintillion Times the Age of the Universe

Basic physics evoke that negatron are essentially immortal . A absorbing experiment recently failed to overturn this fundamental assumption . But the crusade has produced a retool minimum lifespan for electron : 60,000 yottayears , which is — get this — about five - quintillion times the current years of the Universe .

That’s a Yotta Years

An negatron is the lightest subatomic particle that carries a negative electric complaint . It has no known components , which is why it ’s considered to be a introductory edifice occlusion of the cosmos , or an elementary atom .

The Borexino facility ( Credit : INFN / Gran Sasso )

An international inquiry squad working on theBorexinoexperiment in Italy were looking for signs of electrons decaying into lighter particle , but as expected , they came up short . This is actually a right matter because it affirms what physicists have suspect for a long clock time . Had they find grounds that electrons dilapidate into photon and neutrinos — even dispirited - mint elementary corpuscle — it would ravish the preservation of electrical charge . Such a find would propose an entirely new physical science beyond the Standard Model .

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But the inquiry team did wangle to come up with the most accurate measure yet of the “ lifetime ” of electrons . Their computation suggest that a particle present today will still be around in 66,000 yottayears ( 6.6 × 1028 years ) , which , as Physics World puts it , “ is about five - quintillion multiplication the current age of the existence . ” The item of this worknow appearsat the skill journal Physical Review Letters .

Anarticlein APS Physics explain how the scientist derive up with such an utmost figure :

Borexino lie in of a cuticle of crude oil - establish liquid that light up when a neutrino , a nearly massless neutral subatomic particle , knocks an electron loose from one of the liquidity ’s mote . The demodulator ’s more or less 2000 photomultipliers then amplify and smell the emitted light . [ The ] researchers aim the sensitiveness of the sensor to photons make via hypothetic electron decay into a photon and a neutrino … They then looked for photon “ events ” above this background with energies near 256 kilo - negatron - volts , an vim corresponding to half the electron rest mass .

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After looking at 408 days ’ worth of data , they found….nothing . But they did manage to ascertain a beggarly electron lifetime .

A New Lower Bound

Now , this does n’t incriminate that electron will live that long . First , the Universe probably wo n’t live by then . And even if it ’s still around — say after a Big Rip scenario — the fundamental properties of particles like negatron will likely be entirely dissimilar .

Second , and more to the point , the new measurements move up the antecedently estimate lower bound on negatron “ longevity . ” The fresh figure is 100 sentence expectant than the late lower limit , which was find out in a similar experimentation back in 1998 . Put another way , if such a chemical reaction occurs , it must come about less than once every 6.6 × 1028 years .

No Signs of Decay

The reason for the hideously long lifespan has to do with the fact that scientists can not be completely certain that electrons are immune to radioactive decay . The reflexion made by the Borexino research worker — or rather the deficiency of observation — indicate that , because we have n’t seen negatron decay by now , their lifespans must be at least as large as the new calculations hint .

Sean Carroll , a enquiry professor in the Department of Physics at the California Institute of Technology , explained it to Gizmodo in an e-mail :

Decay is very natural in particle physics ; heavier particles tend to decay into lighter ones . A neutron left all by itself , for example , will decay into a proton , an negatron , and an anti - neutrino in just a few min . It ’s just the elementary - mote version of the decay of a radioactive nucleus like uranium .

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But there are some things that seem to never happen , which we describe by preservation law . For example , the total electric commission does n’t change . Also the “ baryon number ” ( total numeral of protons plus neutrons , minus the turn of anti - protons plus anti - neutron ) , and the “ lepton telephone number ” ( electron plus neutrinos , minus their antiparticles ) . discover this is satisfied by the neutron decay . Before decay we have one neutron , which is charge = 0 , heavy particle number = 1 , and lepton number = 0 . Afterwards it is also charge = 0 ( proton = +1 , electron = -1 , anti - neutrino = 0 ) , heavy particle number = 1 ( proton = 1 , negatron and anti - neutrino = 0 ) , and lepton number = 0 ( proton = 0 , negatron = 1 , anti - neutrino = -1 ) .

Baryon and lepton turn have never been see to change in any experiment — doing so would be Nobel - Prize - worthy — but on theoretical reason we think they perchance could change , and likely did in the other universe . ( That would help explicate why there is more topic than antimatter in the current universe . )

But nobody expects charge to change , which is a more robustly husband quantity .

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“ It would be one of the most surprising things ever if electric charge was not maintain , ” pronounce Carroll . “ That ’s why everyone think negatron do n’t decay . ”

Carroll said the only particle that are light than electrons are electrically impersonal : neutrino , photons , gluons , gravitons . If there were other light charged particles , we should have detected them by now . This suggests there ’s nothing for the electron to decay into .

“ But we should still appear ! It ’s a drawing ticket — very unlikely that you will regain anything , but if you do , you get rich , ” said Carroll . “ Sadly , they did n’t find anything , but void results are an important part of honest science . ”

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