what happens to positrons after pair production?
There are two possible outcomes, but which one is true or most probable?
- The particle antiparticle pair have enough kinetic energy to overcome the electrostatic attraction between so they will move away indefinitely in opposite directions
- They do not have enough energy so they will undergo annihilation such that either a) The pair eventually annihilate, but can be observed before they do so (i.e. they are real or "on-shell"), and b) The pair annihilate essentially immediately after creation, and are not observed separately but rather modify the behavior of another process (i.e. they are virtual or "off-shell"),