Recent content by hubble_bubble

Well if you think about it a high energy photon hitting matter should produce two electrons as it has not hit anti matter. It makes sense that a photon hitting anti matter would generate the electron's anti particle, the positron. Yet here we have a positron being produced by a photon hitting...

Generating a positron from a collision with matter seems only feasible if matter and antimatter have a connection beyond simple annihilation. Do quarks and anti quarks co-exist in some sense?

Sorry I should have said earlier composed from electron energy only.

Well high energy photons can produce an electron and a positron pair. From where?

Well I am understanding this all wrong then. I did see this. https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=192870 And this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pair_production

What I am trying to grasp is the electron/positron pairing in photons when matter and anti matter annihilate. When photons are released from matter only what are they then composed of? Electrons only?

Maybe antimatter is just not meant to exist on its own and is just another component of matter. We think of it as antimatter whereas it is really only a subset of matter.

Thanks for the answer that makes sense of the situation.

I've just read up on mesons. Would they occur naturally and do they interact with matter?

Are there any answers to this question? If equal amounts of matter and antimatter were in existence at the big bang surely each annihilation would remove equal amounts of matter and antimatter?

Thanks. I believe some of the proposals at CERN are to detect if there is even a negligibly small repulsive force. They don't seem to favour this though. I wonder what they will find to explain the discrepancy between the amounts of matter and antimatter in the universe.

I notice that anti-helium-4 nuclei have been produced now.

I am assuming that you mean because the charges balance out there will be the same net effect? if so have anti-matter molecules been created yet?

As the positron has a positive charge and is the mirror of the electron and the antiproton is negative and a mirror of the proton, will then anti-matter produce anti-gravity. If not then why not? Is this linked to the photon pairing of electron and positron?

I have found my answer. "Gravitational or buoyant convection resulting from material properties other than temperature."