First some background. An electron, with a mass of 0.511 megaelectron volts (MeV), is the lightest of the charged leptons (leptons are elementary particles of half-integer spin, i.e. spin 1/2, that don't not undergo strong interactions).
The next-heavier charged lepton is the muon. It has a mass of 106 MeV, which is some 200 times greater than the electron's mass but is significantly less than the proton's mass of 938 MeV (I recall from my physics lessons in high school that an electron's mass is about 1/2000th, to be precise 1/1854th or so, of a proton's mass, so 1,854 times 0.511 will indeed give you something in the neighborhood of 938 MeV). Apart from the great mass discrepancy, muons are elementary particles similar to electrons, with the same electric charge of −1 e and spin of -1/2. As with other leptons, the muon is not thought to be composed of any simpler particles. A muon is an unstable subatomic particle with a mean lifetime of 2.2 μs, which is however much longer than many other subatomic particles.
#ExplainIn20Seconds Curious about muon-to-electron conversion? This short video explains it. Mu2e experiment @Fermilab is looking for such conversion, which would point us towards new physics beyond the standard model. pic.twitter.com/lVQ5EjyPFp
— Fermilab Education Office (@FermilabEd) October 3, 2024
Be that as it may, that up quarks can become down quarks and one kind of neutrino another, I can understand. After all, the mass stays the same. However, what this video fails to tell me is how a muon could morph into an electron when it's some 200 times heavier??? Where would all the surplus mass go?
MFBB.
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