Re: Binary stars

["John S. Denker" <jsd@MONMOUTH.COM>]

At 10:59 AM 12/18/99 -0500, Ludwik Kowalski wrote:

> proton and antiproton. To have
> them circle about the common C.M.  Was a
> proton-antiproton "binary star" ever observed experimentally?

Sure.  Just shoot antiprotons at hydrogen.

> Should it be called a heavy neutron

No.

> or a hydrogen "atom"?

Sometimes it is called that, but I'm not convinced it's the optimal name.

-------------

Other critters of interest include:

Positronium:    an electron orbiting a positron (or vice versa :-).  It's
more stable than you might think, and provides elegant and sensitive tests
of quantum electrodynamics.

Muonium:  an electron orbiting a mu+.

Muonic atoms:  An atom where one of the electrons has been replaced by a
mu-.  Especially in the case where it is one of the 1s electrons that gets
replaced, the muon spends a lot of time overlapping the nucleus, thereby
providing useful information about nuclear structure.