Antimatter Why does it annhiliate on contact with ordinary matter?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the phenomenon of antimatter annihilation upon contact with ordinary matter, exploring the underlying mechanisms, energy release, and conservation laws involved in such interactions. The scope includes theoretical explanations and conceptual clarifications related to particle physics.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Technical explanation, Conceptual clarification, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant questions why matter releases all its energy upon contact with antimatter and how charge binds energy into particles.
  • Another participant explains that collisions between particles and their antiparticles occur under certain energy conditions and that not all rest mass energy is released; some energy contributes to the creation of new particles and their kinetic energy.
  • A different participant notes that when a particle and its antiparticle react, conserved quantities, including electric charge, cancel out, allowing for the possibility of energy being transferred to photons, which can heat surrounding matter.
  • One participant expresses a feeling of confusion or inadequacy after receiving information.
  • Another participant states that annihilation releases the rest mass energy of particles and references an animation to illustrate the process in a simplified manner.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants present multiple viewpoints regarding the energy dynamics of particle-antiparticle annihilation, with no consensus reached on the specifics of energy release and the implications of conservation laws.

Contextual Notes

Some statements rely on assumptions about energy conservation and the nature of particle interactions, which may not be fully explored or defined in the discussion.

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why does matter release all its energy upon contact with the opposite charge? Hows does charge bind the energy into particles?
 
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Collisions between a particle and the corresponding antiparticle are just like any other reaction -- it takes place provided there is sufficient energy, and provided that no conservation law is violated. It's not true that "all" of their rest mass gets released as energy. Part of if goes into creation of other particles, and part of it goes into supplying these new particles with kinetic energy.

For more than 25 years the Tevatron at Fermilab collided protons and antiprotons. Here's a picture of a typical collision showing the shower of particles it produced.
 
When a particle reacts with its own anti-particle, all the conserved quantities (electric charge is just one of them) cancel out so it is possible (but not required) that all the particles energy gets transferred to a number of photons. These photons will be absorbed by the surrounding matter heating it up.
 
Last edited:
Ohhhh...0_0Thanks I feel stupid now :).
 

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