Solution to 2008 Problem 63


The Mossbauer effect (answer (A)), the Casimir effect (answer (B)), and the photoelectric effect (answer (C)) describe completely unrelated phenomenon. The Mossbauer effect describes the absorption or emission of a photon by a nucleus in a solid. The Casimir effect describes the attraction between the two plates of a parallel plate capacitor due to the vacuum polarization that occurs in quantum electrodynamics. The photoelectric effect describes the process of photons transferring their energy to electrons in a metal.
All elementary particle interactions can be classified as electromagnetic, weak, or strong interactions. A neutrino is emitted in interaction in this problem, and neutrinoes only interact weakly, so this is an example of a weak interaction. Therefore, answer (D) is correct.


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