Neutrons DIE in 14 minutes

#neutrons #bigbang #losalamos Poor neutrons — they don’t even get 15 minutes of fame! Physicists at Los Alamos National Lab trapped Ultracold Neutrons in a bottle to see how long they live! Free Neutrons Are Breaking Records and Confusing Physicists! Why do Neutrons live for exactly 14.629 minutes when in isolation, but forever when they are bound in an atomic nucleus? That is a mystery as old as time, but a good fact for us -- if neutrons did not decay, we wouldn't be here!

Scientists have discovered the exact length of time a neutron will survive before it decays into a proton, an electron, and an anti-neutrino. This confirms the Standard Model of physics which predicts how often neutrons decay. We have known for years that a lonely neutron will die in about 15 minutes dating back to the original measurement of a free neutron’s decay in 1951.

The new experiment, called UCNtau (for "Ultra Cold Neutrons tau", where tau refers to the neutron lifetime), has revealed that the neutron lives 14.629 minutes with an uncertainty of 0.005 minutes. This is a factor of two more precise than previous measurements. While the results do not solve the mystery of why free neutrons live as long as they do, they bring scientists closer to answering this question which has been around since the birth of the universe.

So do neutrons need to take their vitamins to live longer?

5:00 neutrinos should be neutrons obviously 😢

📺 Watch my most popular videos:📺

Be my friend:

Footage Credits:
Los Alamos National Lab

Thanks to Treb Padula/StudioU at UC San Diego

-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-
Please watch: "Neil DeGrasse Tyson: Plays the Race Card!"
-~-~~-~~~-~~-~-

[DrBrianKeating]

Why do neutrons live only for 14 minutes but protons live forever? Share your answer for a Nobel Prize!

[edreusser]

This video was worth the wait. I will be watching the rest of them. Thanks, Brian for explaining things so well. You and Sabine are my favorites except of course for Anton. But no one beats the master himself (Petrov) so I wouldn't feel too bad. The thing is, I really get that he thinks other people are wonderful.

Thank you, Brian. I always watch videos you are involved in and will continue to do so. I wish there was a way I could subscribe to a presenter instead of a channel. Sabine mentioned her singing once and I still haven't found it but she has a beautiful voice and I would like to.

[cybrfriends]

Love the special effects, the jokes, along with the scientific information. Great video Brian!

[davidsault]

I think that "particles at an elementary level" will turn out to be space itself.

[KaliFissure]

Neutron decay cosmology is seriously everything. It's the thermodynamic solution to cosmology which solves for baryon asymmetry electron half spin. The initial decay product is dark matter. And the volume increase is exact compensatory volume decrease imparted by gravity.
The circle and its inversion/eversion.

[michellespinasse]

I find it confusing that many atoms have neutrons in their nucleus, and have half lives much longer than 14 minutes. What's going on there ? are those neutrons getting replaced by new ones as they decay, or are neutrons decaying much slower when they are bound in a nucleus ?

[TheEnrieb]

So, If I understand this right...Los Alamos Scientists created a Magneto Gravitational Trap to capture Neutrons, and as we all know Ghosts are made from Neutrons. All you need now is some sort of Firestation as a base, a car and some business cards.

[Alexander_Sannikov]

giga-unclear how the containment vessel works. particularly, what mechanism is used to prevent them from leaking.

[chadriffs]

It's two cycles long, whose breakdown leads to a third, or creation of stuff. A proton is 1 and can't be broken down further but only added to.

[marlou]

Imprisoned, frozen and trapped ....till they wither away into further decay... now I’m sad

[wulphstein]

It is amazing that protons never decay, and will last forever.

[luudest]

0:35 haha nice one about the most important actor in the Big Bang Theory 😂

[mm-ytsf]

ohh i think i'm missing something...if neutrons die so quickly, how are isotopes so stable? wouldn't the neutrons in an atom be mostly gone after a day? or are neutrons without a home short lived but if they're in an atom they're fine?

[markphc]

I was aware of the discrepancy between the 2 methods of measurement, but even this result doesn’t seem that accurate compared to other physics measurements

[indream]

But! Slowing down neutrons and messing with it, so it can be contained - maybe it affects the results? Maybe "wild" neutron lives differently?

[JimGobetz]

Another great vid, such a challenging endeavor just in holding the Neutrons let alone calculating the decay time. Incredible stuff indeed, thanks Brian

[rayoflight]

If the solitary neutrons do live for 14 minutes only, and protons live forever (longer than 10³³ years), it means that neutrons are the mean to a purpose.
And the purpose is the existence of elements other than pure hydrogen, because accompanied neutrons (i.e., in a nucleus) do live "forever" too...

[thomascorbett]

Why don't all atoms fall apart or decay since all atoms have neutrons ? Or is this a really dumb question .

[thomascorbett]

I thought neutrons were part of all atoms and if so why don't they decay inside of atoms, or am I totally confused .

[sciencedaddio]

I thermalized neutrons in the Navy and smashed them into Uranium, lol.