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The way this article is worded it presumes that proton decay actually occurs, when there is no evidence as yet that it actually does, just several theories which predict it. (IIRC, experimental evidence so far indicates that if it occurs at all, it takes a lot longer than many GUT candidates predict.)
Another completely different hypothetical form of proton decay could be this one: I can imagine that an atomic nucleus with a distinct excess of protons over neutrons could decay by expelling one or more protons - and this would be called "proton decay", just as decay by expelling an electron is called "beta particle decay" or just "beta decay". However, this form of decay could be extraordinarily rare. Decay by expelling a positron might be a lot more likely. But just because a form of decay is rare doesn't mean that it is impossible. There are a few isotopes that decay, rarely, by expelling an entire carbon-12 nucleus -- but this has been observed in the laboratory.03:24, 11 August 2009 (UTC)
The article incorrectly assumes that decay into a neutral pion and a gamma is the only possible channel. If no assumptions are made on the decay mode, the experimental lower limit on proton mean life is just 1.6×10^25 years.
Source: Particle Data Group
— Herbee 2004-02-10
"it has been recently determined..." -- when? -- Tarquin 09:50, 16 Sep 2003 (UTC)
Proton decay is the conveniant hand wave that many theories use to explain certain components of background radiation. It is howveer highly unlikely. Neutrons decay because they are udd adn eventually both d will decay with the resulting electrons fighting over the only u, so one of them gets emitted. A proton however being uud does nto have that problem. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by AnthonyQBachler ( talk • contribs) .
This article takes it as fact that there was an imbalance in the ratio of antimatter to matter in the early universe. I don't think there is any real experimental evidence of this. If so where is the article on it. I myself even have proposed an alternate theory for the matter-antimatter imbalance that does not require this magic.` 64.26.170.107 00:23, 28 Aug 2004 (UTC)
There is a nice summary of baryogenesis and the matter-antimatter imbalance, but this article is about proton decay. The last sentence in the baryogenesis section essentially says: "and thus, proton decay." A little more explanation as to what proton decay has to do with the matter-antimatter asymmetry would be welcome for those of us for whom this seems to come out of left field. 99.48.75.121 ( talk) 16:38, 7 February 2011 (UTC)
If I'm reading the article on Sphalerons correctly, it is a theoretical possibility that remains unobserved - or so it seems to imply. So should this not be one of the possible proton decay modes, and thus appear BELOW the introduction? After all, the "normal" X boson mechanism is also assumed to be important only at high energies as well, so do sphalerons claim to explain the baron problem on their own, or not? Maury 20:56, 28 June 2006 (UTC)
"Diamonds are not forever" is a famous humorous phrase associated with the theory that protons might decay. Might be nice to find a reference and include that. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by DonPMitchell ( talk • contribs) on 16:42, 11 February 2007.
I've moved the following recently-added passage from the article to the talk page:
Although proton would have so big half-life if it would decay, it is suggested that proton decay could be catalyzed by magnetic monopoles if their existence is possible.
I'd like to see references for this cited before it goes back in. I'm not saying it's _incorrect_; just that I hadn't heard of it, and everything in the article should be referenced anyways. -- Christopher Thomas 21:16, 18 April 2007 (UTC)
Here is something more about magnetic monopoles and proton decay. -- 83.131.22.78 13:05, 20 April 2007 (UTC)
I was just watching Law & Order on DVD and looked up this article on a lark, so I added in the specific episode as a citation. --scooby
I thought that proton decay goes as follows:
This section is WAY too technical for average reader. It was almost entirely written by Phys before two years (from 19:35, 19 September 2005 to 15:12, 10 October 2005 as it can be seen in history). There is no explaination in this section about what "decay operator" is or some wikilink about that term. There are some redlinks as well, and some links which aren't really helpful because they don't point to article which discuss the term in needed context. It's unlikely that anybody will find this section at the current state helpful, because those who understand it most probably already knows the contained information. This section needs an general rewrite to make it accessible to more general audience. -- 83.131.30.231 16:48, 21 July 2007 (UTC)
Perhaps a reference should be added to the value of 10×1035 years. The paper given (K. Hagiwara et al., "Particle Data Group current best estimates of proton lifetime", Phys. Rev. D 66, 010001 (2002) ISBN 978-06848657680) dates from 2002 and is presumably from the 2001 Super-Kamiokande results and gives > 10^31 to 10^33 years [d]
I couldn't find any results suggesting 10×1035 years on the Super-Kamiokande website.
You will be aware that the average non-specialist reader will have seen 10×1032 years, or simply "10^33 years", and this is the value that other google sources bring up - from the same Super-Kamiokande experiment. e.g. the hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu site
"As of [2001], it seems that the proton lifetime has been pushed out to [at least] 10^33 years."
Excellent article, by the way Andysoh 22:28, 27 August 2007 (UTC)
So, let's say---just hypothetically---that I---I mean someone---were to create a redirect page titled firstbit rotting, pointing to this page. Would that confuse people? Michael Hardy ( talk) 06:02, 12 November 2008 (UTC)
Could the annihilation of matter/anti-matter collisions be a precursor to the creation of "Dark Matter" and/or "Dark Energy"?
Just a thought that popped into my head just now.
KJI (talk) SR (talk) 20:30, 27 November 2008 (UTC)
In the baryogenesis section of the article, a reference is made to the Higgs boson and the article used the symbol "T", which I have replaced with
H0
. Later in the article, references are made to a "Higgs triplet" with symbol "T" and "T". Maybe both should reference the triplet? I don't know - please respond if you do and update the page if needed.
I have not education in physics and do not know what this Higgs triplet is. The article is not clear about this either. Maybe someone can add a bit more context/clarification or better references?
Proton decay#Dimension-5 proton decay operators mentions something called a "tripletino". It's a red link, and has been since it was added in 2005. A full-text search of the arXiv for this word turned up exactly one paper. Obviously the word is not in common use among physicists and should be removed, but I don't know what should replace it. -- BenRG ( talk) 07:06, 24 April 2011 (UTC)
Although the phenomenon is referred to as "proton decay", the effect would also be seen in neutrons bound inside atomic nuclei. Free neutrons—those not inside an atomic nucleus—are already known to decay into protons (and an electron and an antineutrino) in a process called beta decay. Free neutrons have a half-life of about 10 minutes (613.9±0.8 s)[6] due to the weak interaction. Neutrons bound inside a nucleus have an immensely longer half-life
Does this mean neutrons can decay in a manner similar to protons (assuming proton decay happens at all)? Or does it mean indirectly, in that neutrons decay into protons which then undergo proton decay? If the protons in a nucleus were to decay, you'd end up, in some cases, with nuclides that would undergo beta-minus decay until eventually a nuclide was reduced to 2H which would then undergo proton decay ending up with a free neutron, which would decay into a proton and eventually itself decay XinaNicole ( talk) 06:36, 24 May 2011 (UTC)
Now that the higgs boson has been discovered, why don't they use the higgs boson to attempt to decay protons? Malamockq ( talk) 14:32, 4 July 2015 (UTC)
The citation given in the article for a theoretical upper bound of 6 × 1039 years for the mean lifetime of the proton is in turn cited from another source: http://www.arxiv.org/pdf/hep-ph/0410198v4.pdf . However, both papers give the upper bound not as a calculated result, but as the unsolved result of an equation proportional to both the X-boson rest mass-energy (mX ≥ √[αGUT]∙[4.3 × 1014 GeV/c2]) and the strength of the GUT force (αGUT). Since those figures are not precisely defined, should the upper-bound figure in years be removed from the article? I would suggest simply modifying the article statement to something like "there may be a theoretical upper bound to the lifetime of the proton" (keeping the same citation given), rather than trying to give a precise figure. Also, any mean lifetimes of the proton should be multiplied by ln(2) to be consistent with the other figures, which are given as half-lives instead of mean lifetimes. Nicole Sharp ( talk) 12:46, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
predicts proton decay | does not predict proton decay | |
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predicts monopoles | ||
does not predict monopoles |
I'm not very familier with the spectrum of different GUT theories such as those given in the Proton decay#Projected proton lifetimes section. Be good to know how those theories sort by these predictions. Jason Quinn ( talk) 18:15, 9 December 2016 (UTC)
“The universe, as a whole, seems to have a nonzero positive baryon number density – that is, matter exists.” I think the aside”..that is, matter exists “ is well intentioned, it’s saying the universe would be much different and we wouldn’t be here, but is it strictly true? Rich ( talk) 23:17, 12 January 2020 (UTC)
So, considering no proton decay has been found to happen, and the theory of sudden expansion or 'Big Bang' predicts that protons should decay - this necessarily puts the Big Bang Theory into question, does it not? I'm far from an expert, but if this is the case, shouldn't it be mentioned in the article? -- 82.21.97.70 ( talk) 15:38, 13 July 2020 (UTC)
What is this? Cannot find it in Google search 2607:FEA8:FF01:47D8:3D09:96CC:BBE9:923F ( talk) 00:35, 20 June 2023 (UTC)