Sunday, 22 March 2020

electromagnetic radiation - Has a free neutron ever been shown to absorb/emit/interact with a photon?


Protons only 'interact with' very high-energy photons, whether inside a nucleus or free, right? I'm assuming the same about neutrons....


Neutrons have a small magnetic moment and a slight electric 'moment' (dipole?), correct? They are sometimes considered to consist of a negative charge surrounding a positive charge?


I would assume that neutrons, in a nucleus or free, interact with photons even less often than protons, and that the gamma photon has to have an even higher energy than one interacting with a proton....


Lastly, I have read about 'photodisintegration', in which a nucleon is kicked out of a nucleus by a gamma ray. It seems to happen to neutrons sometimes...



But, I am mostly curious about experimental evidence of free neutrons interacting with photons, how often it happens compared to free protons, and whether the interacting photon's energy has to be extremely high, higher even than a photon interacting with a proton...




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