On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 4:49 PM, meekerdb <meekerdb@verizon.net> wrote:
I would suppose that a neutron star would continually have neutrons undergo beta decay, producing a proton and electron which are captured by gravity and a neutrino which isn't.
Brent Meeker
The Physics of Neutron Stars, Lattimer and Prakash http://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0405262v1.pdf The Physics of Neutron Stars, Whitehead http://einstein.drexel.edu/~bob/Term_Reports/Whitehead_hw1.pdf The first paper describes a neutron star's inner and outer cores, crust, atmosphere and envelope, and their respective compositions. The second paper examines the p+ + e− ↔ n + ¯ν_e reaction and concludes neutrons predominate at the core's density, which is similar to that within an atomic nucleus. My understanding is that electrons there are under such pressure that they occupy every possible state, such that neutrons are unable to decay because the decay product has no place it can exist.