Beta (\(\beta^-\)) decay is the release of an electron by the change of a neutron to a proton. The neutron (charge = 0) is made up of one up quark (charge = \(\frac{2}{3}\)) and two down quarks ...

The proton remains inside the nucleus, but the electron is ejected at high speed. This is called beta decay. Beta decay causes the atomic number of the nucleus to increase by one (because there is ...