Can Light Radiation Really Convert into Matter?

[p-brane]

Electron - Positron Annihilation

Both the electron and the positron have a mass of 9 x 10^-31 kg and their energy = 0.51 MeV
Both have spin = 1/2

When the two particles collide, the result is two massless photons each with a energy of 0.51 MeV.

The mass of both particles along with their positive or negative charge has gone. Instantly decayed to nothing. All that is left is energy.

"All that is left is energy".

I imagine that's all there was in the first place. So that, nothing is lost and nothing is gained. Is this true? Is it simply that the energy is transformed and redistributed? "Neither created nor destroyed".

 

[AWolf]

"All that is left is energy".

I imagine that's all there was in the first place. So that, nothing is lost and nothing is gained. Is this true? Is it simply that the energy is transformed and redistributed? "Neither created nor destroyed".

Conservation of energy states, as you put it, Neither created nor destroyed. So the only option available is to manipulate it. Transform it from one thing into another.

The electron and the positron have the same energy, but their other properties provide each particle with its own identity. After the collision, the two particles that result have different identities from the electron and positron. For one, they have no mass and no charge.

According to the conservation of energy, the energy before the collision must equal the energy after. So if we've accounted for all the energy, what happened to the mass and charge of the electron or positron ?

The configuration of the energy of the electron and that of the positron, must have canceled out the other, leaving plain energy behind, with no complex configuration.