In particle physics, Fermi's interaction (also the Fermi Theory of Beta Decay) is an explanation of the beta decay, proposed by Enrico Fermi in 1933. The theory posits four fermions directly interacting with one another, at one vertex.
For example, this interaction explains beta decay of a neutron by direct coupling of a neutron with:
- an electron,
- an antineutrino and
- a proton. Fermi first introduced this coupling in his description of beta decay in 1933.
- virtual W- boson
Read more about Fermi's Interaction: History of Initial Rejection and Later Publication, The Nature of The Interaction, Fermi Constant
Famous quotes containing the word interaction:
“Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man,—a sort of breeding in and in, which produces at most a merely English nobility, a civilization destined to have a speedy limit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)