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I was recently studying Pair Production and Annihilation. The author mentions that a nearby nucleus is required when the photon materialises into a particle and an anti-particle. The explanation given is that the momentum and the energy must be conserved. However, there is no calculation given that shows the violation of energy. The reason is just blankly stated. Is there more to this concept. Please explain? As far as I know that from the knowledge of Particle Physics, virtual photons can violate the conservation laws if the time scales are very small due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Then why can't we apply the same idea here?

PS: I've read the other answers but none of them include the contribution of Nucleus' energy/momentum to conserve momentum or energy.

I was recently studying Pair Production and Annihilation. The author mentions that a nearby nucleus is required when the photon materialises into a particle and an anti-particle. The explanation given is that the momentum and the energy must be conserved. However, there is no calculation given that shows the violation of energy. The reason is just blankly stated. Is there more to this concept. Please explain? As far as I know that from the knowledge of Particle Physics, virtual photons can violate the conservation laws if the time scales are very small due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Then why can't we apply the same idea here?

I was recently studying Pair Production and Annihilation. The author mentions that a nearby nucleus is required when the photon materialises into a particle and an anti-particle. The explanation given is that the momentum and the energy must be conserved. However, there is no calculation given that shows the violation of energy. The reason is just blankly stated. Is there more to this concept. Please explain? As far as I know that from the knowledge of Particle Physics, virtual photons can violate the conservation laws if the time scales are very small due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Then why can't we apply the same idea here?

PS: I've read the other answers but none of them include the contribution of Nucleus' energy/momentum to conserve momentum or energy.

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  • 48

Why is a nearby nucleus required for Pair Creation?

I was recently studying Pair Production and Annihilation. The author mentions that a nearby nucleus is required when the photon materialises into a particle and an anti-particle. The explanation given is that the momentum and the energy must be conserved. However, there is no calculation given that shows the violation of energy. The reason is just blankly stated. Is there more to this concept. Please explain? As far as I know that from the knowledge of Particle Physics, virtual photons can violate the conservation laws if the time scales are very small due to the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. Then why can't we apply the same idea here?