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Accompanying
pair production is an associated phenomena called pair
annihilation. The pair production phenomenon resulted in energy
being converted into a particle and an antiparticle. Pair
annihilation is the reverse of that process.
What has been observed in the production of an electron - positron
pair, an electron and its antiparticle, the electron looks like any
normal electron. It can freely exist after its creation and wanders
about universe wherever its energy takes it. However, the antimatter
particle, the positron, is actually in a “foreign” world. It does
not belong in the world of matter, hence it name as “anti-matter” or
“anti-particle.” The annihilation of the positron is inevitable
because antimatter is not the natural state in this physical
reality.
From the positrons point of view, the antimatter particle, it is
born, travels some distance until it dies by recombining with an
electron becoming energy again. When the particles annihilate their
energy is converted back into energy and all the energy is
conserved. Nothing is really “lost” although the anti-particle and a
particle disappear the energy still exists only it is altered in
form.
It should be noted that when the positron and electron annihilate,
they “leave” the physical and material world. In doing so, they
takes a part of the physical world with them, although it is a very,
very small part. Nevertheless, the physical world is changed by the
loss of both particles as individualized particles and their rest
mass.
Related topics
Implications and observations from pair annihilation
Living in a world in which we don’t belong
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