Chronicles of Antimatter: Beta Inverse Decay (Part 5)
Another way to produce the fuel to leave the Solar System! (Part 2)🚀
Preface
Welcome back to another article, my space enthusiasts! If you are confused with what I am talking about, I can help you catch up to speed with my previous recommendation on where we are with getting to other planets and solar systems!
Now, where were we, readers?
You were going to talk about that person or company who wanted to change the rocket propulsion industry, Carlos!
Ah, yes! The person who we will talk about is an interesting person with an unconventional dream to disrupt the space industry! Let’s briefly check him and his company out! ⚛
Ryan Weed & Positron Dynamics
Former Blue Origin Instrumentation & Controls Engineer & CEO of Positron Dynamics Ryan Weed started a vision of where we use antimatter to leverage space exploration. Specifically, he and his company, Positron Dynamics, want to use positrons for their antimatter rockets.
Holy F***! Oh, sorry, Carlos! Hopefully, your readers don't mind that type of controversial language here!😅
It's okay, I was surprised the first time as well! However, we will not focus on Ryan, his company right now, how he is creating the positrons that he needs for the positron rocket, or why positrons in the first place, that can be a separate article of its own, if you know what I’m cooking up! 😉
For the purposes of this article, we will focus on what type of propulsion he plans to use for his rocket: Positrons.
We know that (Beta +) Decay of K-40 inside the Human Body emits positrons, which is a positively charged electron; positron.
But Carlos, (Beta +) Decay is getting a little bit… well, boring? Is there another way we can make a position? No offense, though. 🙏🏽
No harm was done! Something tells me you read the title before reading the article because we are going to put beta decay on the side for today. Today, we will talk about Inverse Beta Decay! ⚛
Wait, Carlos, is this the Beta Decay you have talked about in this series, but the Beta Inverse Decay is Beta Decay with an Uno Reverse Card?
Well, what do you mean, then, Carlos?
Well, I have a question for you, reader. Do you know what Beta Decay is in the first place? If not, don’t panic! I got you covered! Here’s my previous article on Beta Decay to keep you updated on “The Chronicles Of Antimatter!”
If you are caught up with our series, then let’s move to something, even more, cooler than Beta Decay… Inverse Beta Decay!
Aye, Aye, Cap- er, I mean, Yes, Carlos! 😅
Brief Review
Wait, what? I thought you said we were going to talk about Inverse Beta Decay, Carlos!
We will, but I want to make sure you get the concepts we talked about earlier in this series to make sure you understand the concepts. I don’t want you to go through the article and look like this when reaching the end:
Okay, got it Carlos! Continue! 😁
Sure! So in the human body, we emit antimatter, also known as the opposite of matter. Normally, if matter and antimatter touch, they annihilate, leaving behind pure energy.
However, you are not emitting a lot of antimatter. Your body only produces 180 positrons (anti-electrons) per hour, so you will not annihilate yourself anytime soon.
How do we emit antimatter? Point the finger at Potassium-40. Potassium-40 (K-40) is the radioactive isotope element inside your body that emits positrons (antimatter). K-40 can decay via (Beta +) & (Beta -) Decay.
Uh, Carlos, What’s (Beta +) and (Beta -)Decay? They sound the same to me.
All right, let me explain that a little bit more!
(Beta +) Decay of K-40 in the body happens 10.72 % of the time, and it emits a positron and a neutrino.
(Beta-) Decay of K-40 in the body happens 89.28 %, and it emits an electron and an antineutrino.
In a nutshell, anti-neutrinos are essentially the positron particle, weighing 500,000 times less than the positron, and can move at the speed of light. Note that we are not sure that if the antineutrinos are totally massless, but let’s assume they are confirmed as massless in this article.
Carlos, now can we talk about Inverse Beta Decay?
Yes! Now let’s go to the fun stuff!
Inverse Beta Decay (IBD)
Inverse Beta Decay (IBD) is a nuclear reaction of subatomic particles fusing together to form other subatomic particles from Beta Decay.
Now, here is the catch, dear reader. Remember the particles that are emitted from (Beta +) and (Beta -) Decay?
Yes, Carlos!
Well, this is what the process of IBD is!
Carlos, WTF!? I don’t get that at all! It’s just a bunch of numbers with symbols! Help me!
In Inverse Beta Decay, an electron anti-neutrino will collide with a proton, and in the nuclear reaction, the particles will emit a neutron and a positron! The symbols at the top of each particle demonstrate the charge of the particle, but in the anti-neutrino, you notice a slash. Since the anti-neutrino has no charge, we add a slash to tell the difference between the neutrino and the anti-neutrino.
Oh, now I get it, Carlos! With this process, we can make more positrons! But, why do we need more positrons? Unless, you want to annihilate the Earth?
Hmm… No, not really, but how about we learn something completely new? It still relates to antimatter, but you may feel like there is a ghost among us right now, it's passing through your body this instant… 👻
