What happens when a particle and an anti particle collide

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When a particle and its antiparticle collide, they annihilate, converting their mass into energy according to E=mc². This energy can create new particles, provided they are not too heavy and have sufficient interaction with the initial pair. Low-energy collisions, like those between electrons and positrons, typically produce photons, while higher-energy collisions can yield a variety of particles, including mesons and baryons. The discussion also touches on the challenges of producing and containing significant amounts of antimatter, highlighting the practical difficulties in achieving such experiments. Overall, the annihilation process illustrates the fundamental relationship between mass and energy in particle physics.
  • #31
Um - as interesting as working out how many atoms there are in etc etc isn't it a bit off topic? I intended my statement to be an absurd understatement :) Even attempting to manufacture, without bothering to contain, the mere 1g that was my example would be silly.
 
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  • #32
mfb said:
Volume is not a meaningful quantity here - most of the matter is very thin interstellar plasma of variable density, and the remaining part is mainly plasma in stars. Just a small fraction is solid.

How to estimate the matter density? Mainly: observe it. The total amount of matter is then given by a multiplication with the size of the observable universe.

That's precisely the point I was trying to make.
 

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