Could lightning be creating antimatter in our atmosphere?

Thread starter ISamson
Start date Nov 25, 2017
Tags

antimatter lightning positron

AI Thread Summary

A Japanese team of scientists has detected gamma rays emitted from lightning strikes, which interact with atmospheric nitrogen to produce positrons, a form of antimatter. This discovery suggests that lightning may play a role in the creation of antimatter in the Earth's atmosphere. The phenomenon is linked to terrestrial gamma-ray flashes, which are bursts of gamma rays associated with thunderstorms. The findings highlight the complex interactions between lightning and atmospheric chemistry. This research opens new avenues for understanding both lightning and antimatter production.

Nov 25, 2017

ISamson

Gold Member

A recent article from phys.org says that a Japanese team of scientists have detected gamma rays coming from lightning strikes, which react with atmospheric Nitrogen and release a positron.

Who would have thought that!

Science news on Phys.org

Nov 25, 2017

jedishrfu

Mentor

Insights Author

Some more details:

https://phys.org/news/2017-10-lightning-afterglow-gamma.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrestrial_gamma-ray_flash

Last edited: Nov 25, 2017

Thread 'A quartet of epi-illumination methods'

Well, it took almost 20 years (!!!), but I finally obtained a set of epi-phase microscope objectives (Zeiss). The principles of epi-phase contrast is nearly identical to transillumination phase contrast, but the phase ring is a 1/8 wave retarder rather than a 1/4 wave retarder (because with epi-illumination, the light passes through the ring twice). This method was popular only for a very short period of time before epi-DIC (differential interference contrast) became widely available. So...

View full post »

Thread 'Effective absorption coefficient of gold nanoparticles'

I am currently undertaking a research internship where I am modelling the heating of silicon wafers with a 515 nm femtosecond laser. In order to increase the absorption of the laser into the oxide layer on top of the wafer it was suggested we use gold nanoparticles. I was tasked with modelling the optical properties of a 5nm gold nanoparticle, in particular the absorption cross section, using COMSOL Multiphysics. My model seems to be getting correct values for the absorption coefficient and...

View full post »