I Particle antiparticle creation

  • I
  • Thread starter Thread starter Michel Raskin
  • Start date Start date
  • Tags Tags
    Creation Particle
Michel Raskin
Messages
4
Reaction score
0
When a particle and antiparticle pair is created are they created on the same position?
If they weren't in the same position it would lead a problem on energy conservation, but they are fermions so they shouldn't be on the same position in space.
 
Physics news on Phys.org
No, they are distinguishable so that is not the the case.
 
Michel Raskin said:
If they weren't in the same position it would lead a problem on energy conservation
You may thinking in classical terms here.

Quantum mechanically, the "position" of a particle is a rather dubious concept unless and until you've interacted with it in a way that localizes it (informally, "measured its position"). So consider an example of an interaction that produces a pair of fermions: an energetic gamma photon interacts with a heavy nucleus and produces a positron/electron pair: all energy conservation (and similarly for momentum) requires is that when the dust settles the sum of the energies of the nucleus, electron, and positron coming out is equal to the energy of the photon and the nucleus going in. The interaction itself should be thought of as a black box: some particles went in, some other particles came out, the energy coming out is equal to energy going in.
 
Michel Raskin said:
When a particle and antiparticle pair is created are they created on the same position?
If they weren't in the same position it would lead a problem on energy conservation, but they are fermions so they shouldn't be on the same position in space.
Usually a particle and an antiparticle cannot have the same quantum number, and hence can occupy the same position.
When two photons (which are their own antiparticles) are created one cannot talk about their position and the question is moot.

In any case, the particle concept becomes meaningless at distances that are too short, and ''the same place'' becomes a nonrelativistic fiction.
 
  • Like
Likes vanhees71
Thank you A.Neumaier Nugatory andJilang for your answers they were really helpful
 
I read Hanbury Brown and Twiss's experiment is using one beam but split into two to test their correlation. It said the traditional correlation test were using two beams........ This confused me, sorry. All the correlation tests I learnt such as Stern-Gerlash are using one beam? (Sorry if I am wrong) I was also told traditional interferometers are concerning about amplitude but Hanbury Brown and Twiss were concerning about intensity? Isn't the square of amplitude is the intensity? Please...
I am not sure if this belongs in the biology section, but it appears more of a quantum physics question. Mike Wiest, Associate Professor of Neuroscience at Wellesley College in the US. In 2024 he published the results of an experiment on anaesthesia which purported to point to a role of quantum processes in consciousness; here is a popular exposition: https://neurosciencenews.com/quantum-process-consciousness-27624/ As my expertise in neuroscience doesn't reach up to an ant's ear...
Insights auto threads is broken atm, so I'm manually creating these for new Insight articles. Towards the end of the first lecture for the Qiskit Global Summer School 2025, Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, Olivia Lanes (Global Lead, Content and Education IBM) stated... Source: https://www.physicsforums.com/insights/quantum-entanglement-is-a-kinematic-fact-not-a-dynamical-effect/ by @RUTA
Back
Top