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Some interesting features of Hydrogen Muon molecules

Posted: Thu Jul 09, 2015 5:19 pm
by AlternateGravity
When I was working with level 3 of the Muon Simulator I found some interesting characteristics of Muon molecules that were different from electron molecules. I found that when I had a hydrogen molecule with two muons and two protons it would not interact with protons at all even though a hydrogen molecule with two protons and two electrons would either attract or repel other molecules. I also found that a hydrogen molecule with two muons could absorb another muon without splitting even though adding an electron would split a hydrogen molecule with two electrons. I wonder how chemistry would be different if most substances had muons instead of electrons.

Re: Some interesting features of Hydrogen Muon molecules

Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2015 10:34 am
by testtubegames
(I really do need to be clearer about what is going on in that level)

When you form a Hydrogen molecule with a muon instead of an electron -- what happens is the two protons get pulled so close together that they fuse into a single nucleus. So you end up with a Helium atom.

That's why the behavior ends up being so different. Neutral Helium is notoriously non-reactive, so it doesn't end up pushing or pulling on the other atoms in the level.

So you're absolutely right that chemistry would be totally different with muons instead of electrons. Waaay shorter bond lengths would lead to a whole bunch of fusion, and probably very different molecular configurations in general.