In a recent show in our country it was depicted that after collision of matter and antimatter electron and protons are created .It's a burning topic in our area now , and I couldn't find satisfiable answer through googling.. So is it possible ?
Add a comment
|
2 Answers
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
4
No, it is not possible. That would violate the conservation of lepton and baryon number.
-
$\begingroup$ I'd agree, with the caveat that colliding non-complementary matter and antimatter particles could conceivably produce other particles -- if they bother to interact at all :-) $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 11:32
-
$\begingroup$ This answer might be more useful if it expanded a bit more on the reasoning. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 12:58
-
$\begingroup$ Can you explain a bit more ? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 13, 2015 at 16:14
-
$\begingroup$ In particle physics, there are multiple conservation laws. Electrons and protons have a lepton number and baryon number respectively. If you initially have matter and its corresponding antimatter, the initial lepton and baryon number of the system is zero. This leads to the conclusion that it's not possible to only produce protons and electrons in such a collision because the final numbers would not be zero. It would be possible though to get protons and electrons IF there are other particles produced to maintain the conservation laws. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 3:15
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
4
Yes, and a good example of this is (or rather was) the LEP collider that preceded the LHC. This collided electrons with positrons, so it was a matter-antimatter collider just as you say, and the collisions created all sorts of particles including electrons and protons.
However, there are several symmetries that, as far as we know, have to be obeyed. Two of these are baryon number and lepton number. Baryon number is the number of baryons (e.g. protons and neutrons) minus the number of anti-baryons (e.g. anti-protons and anti-nuetrons). Likewise lepton number is the number of leptons (e.g. electrons, muons, neutrinos) minus the number of anti-leptons. A third symmetry is charge symmetry i.e. the total charge musn't change.
In the electron positron collision both the baryon and lepton numbers start at zero, so whatever flies out of the collision must also add up to a total baryon and lepton number of zero. So for every electron created there must be an anti-lepton such as a positron, anti-muon or anti-tau. In practice, after the anti-muon and anti-tau had decayed, we'd end up with the same number of electrons and positrons as well as various neutrinos.
It's a little more complicated with protons because protons are composite partices. However if we wait long enough for the unstable collision products to decay we'd end up with the same number of protons and anti-protons.
answered Aug 13, 2015 at 15:27
-
$\begingroup$ Thank you , can you please point me a journal , paper regarding this topic ? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 8:53
-
$\begingroup$ @TamimAdDari: can you be more precise about what topic you want to know more about? $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 8:54
-
$\begingroup$ About the topic where colliding matter-antimatter created electron or protons . $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 12:15
-
$\begingroup$ Google will find you lots of articles on the subject. For example this is a nice review. $\endgroup$ Commented Aug 14, 2015 at 16:44