Re: Heavy Protons & Life Without Hydrogen

In message <1185392839.992798.79330@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Luke Campbell <lwcamp@xxxxxxxxx> writes
On Jul 25, 12:03 pm, George W Harris <ghar...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

The original premise is that protons are more
massive than neutrons so isolated protons decay to
neurtrons rather than the other way around. I don't
think it's safe to assume that a triton would decay to
3He rather than the reverse.

Good point. This changes the stellar nucleosynthesis a bit, since you
only start out with isotopes of hydrogen, but once D-T fusion starts,
you get 4He which leads to the same end-point. It is just now your
nebulae and proto-solar systems have only Z=1 elements in them.

Luke

It seems to me that in a universe with these properties you'd either have a weak-interaction limited t-n reaction analogous to the p-p reaction of our universe, or tritons would react with neutrons to form H-4 which would decay to He-4.
--
Stewart Robert Hinsley
.

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