Conservation
See also: Conservation lawThe baryon number is conserved in nearly all the interactions of the Standard Model. 'Conserved' means that the sum of the baryon number of all incoming particles is the same as the sum of the baryon numbers of all particles resulting from the reaction. An exception is the chiral anomaly. However, sphalerons are not all that common. Electroweak sphalerons can only change the baryon number by 3.
The still hypothetical idea of a grand unified theory allows for the changing of a baryon into several leptons (see B − L), thus violating the conservation of both baryon and lepton numbers. Proton decay would be an example of such a process taking place, but has never been observed.
Read more about this topic: Baryon Number
Famous quotes containing the word conservation:
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