Are neutrons gauge neutral to all gauge forces?

Question

Are neutrons gauge neutral to all gauge interactions?

Neutron has mass, so it does couple to gravity.

However, if we focus on the strong, electromagnetic EM, and weak forces,

are there gauge interactions that can act on neutrons?

• Neutron must be a SU(3) color singlet, which means it is in the trivial representation 1 of the SU(3) color gauge group.

• Neutron must be a neutral carrying charge 0 under U(1) electromagnetism EM.

• Question 1: Can a neutron carry the gauge charge of the (acted by) U(1) hypercharge gauge field?

• Question 2: Can a neutron carry the gauge charge of the (acted by) SU(2) weak gauge field?

It looks like question 1 and question 2 depend on whether the neutrons are formed by the left-handed quarks (SU(2) weak doublet) or the right-handed quarks (SU(2) weak singlet).

If a neutron is formed by three right-handed quarks, then it looks like question 1 and 2 have answers yes, because three SU(2) weak singlets form a singlet.

If a neutron is formed by three left-handed quarks, then it looks like question 1 and 2 have answers no, because three SU(2) weak doublets cannot form a singlet.

But do my interpretations seem too weird?

Thanks for comments and answers!

PS: Of course, a neutron $n$ can $\beta$ decay to a proton $p^+$ under weak interaction. But this decay is via the internal weak interaction inside a neutron. The above question I am asking the net gauge charge of the neutron being acted by external gauge forces.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart

Comments

In the comment below by Cosmas Zachos, "there are NO fermion bound states within standard model being gauge neutral to all gauge forces." Can one prove that any fermion bound states canNOT carry a trivial representation for all gauge groups? (for all U(1), SU(2), SU(3).) It must be a nontrivial representation for some gauge group? Any literature/refs on this?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart

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Is "gauge neutral" a normal physics term?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user Peter Mortensen

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Or is it possessive (for the neutron)? - "Are neutrons' gauge..." Can a physicist clear it up for us non-physicists? From Gauge theory: "In physics, a gauge theory is a type of field theory in which the Lagrangian does not change (is invariant) under local transformations from certain Lie groups."

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user Peter Mortensen

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@PeterMortensen. I'm not in touch with normal... There is "gauge charge" and so "gauge charged" and by informal over-reach "gauge neutral".

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user Cosmas Zachos

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You seem to be aware of valence quarks and unaware of sea quarks. Neutrons are way more than three bound quarks.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user Eric Towers

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@CosmasZachos That seems like an answer, rather than a comment.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user rob

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@Cosmas Zachos, thanks, please type an answer if possible -- "Since a neutron is perforce composed by both these species, it cannot be weak-neutral." --> what is perforce? thanks please explain

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart

Answer 1

Are neutrons gauge neutral to all gauge forces?

No. Neutrons have a substantial magnetic moment and thus feel a magnetic field.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user G. Smith

Comments

Based on the examples given in the question, the question is using "neutral" as a synonym for "has zero net charge", not a synonym for "inert."

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user Chiral Anomaly

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@ChiralAnomaly Yes, I should have read to the end of the question.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user G. Smith

Answer 2

There's a nice complementarity between the constants which describe couplings been the various weak isospin states and the photon (which we refer to as "electric charge") and a corresponding set of couplings between those flavor states and the weak neutral current, carried by the Z boson. It turns out that, in a system of units where the neutrino and the neutron have approximately unit "weak charge" (with opposite signs), the electron and proton weak charges are "small" in a way that's sensitive to the Weinberg angle.

Here's a more detailed answer about the proton's weak charge, with some links to the literature.

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user rob

Answer 3

The neutron is composed of quarks (and gadzillions of antiquarks) both left and right-chiral: the quark mass terms connect them to each other and both species have a role to play.

In addition, you readily see in the PDG review that the weak hypercharge connects to both species in a magnificently lopsided way (Feynman used to call it "cockeyed"). So, by necessity, the neutron cannot be weak neutral.

For instance, the quark effective Lagrangian in the SM has a term like $$ W^+_\mu J^{\mu ~+}= W^+_\mu \bar u \gamma^\mu P_L d , $$ and, as you indicated, this elicits the decay of the free neutron, since $$ \langle p| J^+ |n\rangle \neq 0 , $$ as you may read up on in standard texts, like the one by M. Schwartz.

But the range of the weak interaction represented by this is 0.1% the size of the neutron, one fermi, so it all happens deep inside it, if you wanted a dream metaphor. It's hard to see what an "external weak force" would be like. (It might be a virtual pseudoscalar coupling, like $K^-$, but pay no mind...) So the weak isospin charge of the neutron is a marshmallow mess computable in current algebra, and it is non vanishing. (Cf. Erler & Su Progress in Particle and Nuclear Physics Volume 71, July 2013, Pages 119-149.)

With similar arguments, you may see the neutral current coupling of the neutron is nonzero, and it probes both L and R quarks inside it, because the weak hypercharge U(1) couples nontrivially to both. But the clever Weinberg combination of electromagnetism remains unbroken, and a Ward identity ensures that the very long distance interactions of a photon with the neutron vanish: zero charge. (On shorter distances, there are magnetic interactions, as G.Smith's answer points out.)

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• Comment on extra comment

  Suppose we do not consider the quark sea. Just the representation theory of a fermion bound state. Does the right-handed neutron as a bound state count as gauge-neutral to all gauge forces?

Comments

If "there are NO fermion bound states within standard model being gauge neutral to all gauge forces." Can one prove that any fermion bound states canNOT carry a trivial representation for all gauge groups? (for all U(1), SU(2), SU(3).) It must be a nontrivial representation for some gauge group? Any literature/refs on this?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart

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How would you see those? Are you talking about our real world, or an arbitrary notional theory world? In a theoretical construct, you might dream of such things. This is how dark matter theorists move. To "prove" anything about our world would take an infinity of experiments...

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user Cosmas Zachos

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Thanks for clarifying - Let us focus on within the textbook Standard Model. (and assume all fermion bare masses can be zero and no Higgs condensate, for simplicity) It is more about the representation theory of spinors in Standard Model, and their bound states representation

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart

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It looks to me that magnetic dipole moment is well-known in public but it is still mysterious to me --- perhaps dipole moment is there due to quark sea. ?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart

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Suppose we do not consider the quark sea. Just the representation theory of a fermion bound state. Does the right handed neutron as a bound state count as gauge neutral to all gauge forces?

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Mysterious undetectable (except gravitationally) dark matter?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user Cosmas Zachos

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arent there fermion bound states within standard model obeying this?

This post imported from StackExchange Physics at 2020-11-26 15:42 (UTC), posted by SE-user annie marie heart