system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
How does beta decay transform a proton into a neutron and other particles? Aren't neutrons more massive?

I was researching about fusion, especially with Hydrogen into Helium and was wondering how the beta decay even occurs/happens when neutrons are larger than protons yet somehow the protons transform into neutrons and other particles?
gpt
In a beta-plus decay, it's not a single neutron which is decaying into a proton, it's an *entire nucleus* decaying into a new species.

While a free proton can't decay into a neutron, beta particle, and neutrino due to energy conservation, an entire nucleus can decay to a species of lower mass by converting one of its protons into a neutron.