CPB Ljubljana 2018 course book

Radioactive Decay

β +

▪  + decay

Unstable nuclides having an excessive number of protons in comparison to neutrons tend to reduce their number of protons by undergoing β + decay where the basic transformation process is

1 1

10

0

0 0



p 

n

  

1

e





The neutrino (electron-neutrino),  e , is like antineutrino a neutral particle (neutral lepton) with practically 0 rest mass (< 18 eV). According to this in the β + decay the atomic number of the nucleus is decreased by 1 and the number of neutrons is increased by 1 where the mass number remains unchanged. β + decay like β - decay is an isobaric nuclei transformation .