Amateur hour physics

aka armchair physics.  I want to understand this Widom Larsen theory better.  To do that, I need to understand something that I don't right now.  I will work through the following.  Anybody who knows better, let me know, if you wish to comment.

beta decay:
n0 → p+ + e− + νe, more easily read by the following: neutron → proton + electron + electron antineutrino
Beta decay happens naturally, as single neutrons are unstable and will decay in a few minutes.

This experiment reversed this process in order to prove the existence of the antineutrino:
νe + p → n + e+ ; or more easily read as above: electron antineutrino + proton → neutron + positron

Note: a positron is positively charged antimatter version of an electron.  The experiment required an electron neutrino source to bombard the protons and produce the expected results.


I'm trying to understand how a proton can become a neutron since protons have 2 up quarks and a down quark and neutrons have 2 down quarks and an up quark.  Therefore, to go from a proton to a neutron, one up quark has to be converted into a down quark.

Since a down quark has more mass than an up quark, the bombardment of the proton by the electron antineutrino must add mass so that the up quark becomes a down quark and causes the proton to become a neutron.  But the newly formed neutron has more mass than the proton and the positron has the same mass as an electron.  Where does the extra mass come from?  It must come from the antineutrino, but it has low mass.  WTF?

I know antineutrinos have low mass, and they travel at near the speed of light.  Since velocity adds mass, then the antineutrinos bombarding the protons are adding the necessary mass.  That's what I think is happening.

Now, the Widom Larsen theory has electrons combining with protons to form neutrons.  Not the same as above.  Electrons have mass and are not traveling at near light speed.  The electron adds mass.  Somehow, the up quark will combine??? with the electron to form the down quark ( with a heavier mass) and turn the proton into a neutron.

This doesn't happen naturally, or we'd have a universe filled with neutrons.  It needs some help to bring about this result.

The Widom Larsen theory attempts to explain how this can happen within the context of low energy nuclear reactions.