But if you need no energy to maintain electrostatic field, in principle, and this field creates positrons and electrons from ''nothingless'' and these positrons have real energy and could annihilate with something releasing gamma rays, wouldn't it mean we received energy from physical vacuum?Simon Bridge said:You can get pair production from a static electric field.
The process is not associated with any additional energy release.
i.e.
http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.4120
For fields so strong that you get pair production you do need energy to maintain them. Otherwise the produced charges will weaken it over time (as electrons go to the positive side and positrons go to the negative side).Stanley514 said:But if you need no energy to maintain electrostatic field
... the field does not make positrons and electrons out of "nothingness" nor out of "physical vacuum". As you point out, if it did, then energy would not be conserved.this field creates positrons and electrons from ''nothingness"
Electron-positron pair production is a process in which a high-energy photon interacts with a nucleus or an atom, producing an electron and a positron (antiparticle of the electron) pair. This process is a fundamental phenomenon in quantum electrodynamics (QED) and is often used in particle accelerators to study the properties of particles.
In order for electron-positron pair production to occur, a high-energy photon must have enough energy to produce the mass of an electron and a positron. This photon must also be near a nucleus or an atom, which provides the necessary energy for the production of the particle pair. The photon then interacts with the nucleus or atom, producing the electron and positron pair.
Electron-positron pair production is significant because it provides evidence for the existence of antiparticles and confirms the principles of conservation of energy and momentum. This process also plays a crucial role in understanding the behavior of particles at high energies and is essential in particle physics research.
No, electron-positron pair production cannot occur in a vacuum. This process requires the presence of a nucleus or an atom to provide the necessary energy for the production of the particle pair. In a vacuum, there are no particles present to interact with the high-energy photon, making the production of electron-positron pairs impossible.
Electron-positron pair production has several applications, including in medical imaging and cancer treatment. In medical imaging, this process is used in positron emission tomography (PET) scans to produce images of the body's internal structures. In cancer treatment, electron-positron pair production is utilized in positron therapy, where high-energy positrons are used to destroy cancer cells.