For reasons mentioned below, my question was a bit of a facetious throwaway, I would have framed it more precisely had I taken a second or so longer to think about it. Anyway, the question should have been:
Is the total time taken for a neutron to fully complete its decay longer but still comparable to the time taken for the W- boson to decay into an electron and antineutrino or is the latter's decay time much, much shorter than the overall process? That is, is the following statement true or otherwise?
[time (total) for n0 → (p+) + (e-) + (-ve)] >> [time W- → (e-) + (-ve)]
...and if so, then do we know by how much; if not then what is it? Alternatively, if the Feynman diagram for neutron beta decay shown in the following link were to actual scale then what would the scale on the vertical (time) axis be? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_neutron_decay
I'm not really trying to be deliberately pedantic or dispute orthodoxy here but my question was in response to these and similar recent stories:
https://scitechdaily.com/zeptoseconds-new-world-record-in-sh...
https://www.quantamagazine.org/quantum-tunnel-shows-particle...
If the info therein is all or in part factual, or if similar measurement methodologies were applicable to other particles, then the ballgame may change, hence the initial reason for my question (similarly so for my first/initial post).
The second (Quanta magazine) link was the subject of a HN story going on about a year ago and it generated many comments (they resolved nothing but many were interesting nonetheless); unfortunately the time for comments was up before discussion had finished (my last, rather prolix comment was still in draft and missed the deadline). In my opinion, controversial topics like this should sometimes be left open to give one time to dwell upon them.
