It can be sai!d that antimatter and matter are opposite excitations in an all permeable quantum field. excitations can be said as waves. so, matter and antimatter can be interpreted as waves or disturbances in the quantum field. And when they meet, they annihilate each other in a way akin to destructive interference. But there is a problem here. Destructive interference occurs without any release of energy. it happens like this, 1-1 equals zero. When destructive interference occurs, there is supposed to be no release of energy because mass is in reality, large amounts of energy packed together. If the mass is annihilated, the energy must be annihilated too. so, when matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate one another with the release of energy. where is this energy coming from? It cant come from the mass as that is supposed to be erased. Cancelled. And again, if matter antimatter meet, the reaction that occurs cannot be called annihilation anymore. It is more like conversion as apparently, mass was turned to energy. But the equations for antimatter describe it as the polar opposite of the matter vibrations. matter and antimatter must disappear once they meet, mass, energy and all. So, what exactly is going on here?
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$\begingroup$ Your question implies that antimatter has negative energy so that it should cancel out the positive energy of normal matter. But that's not the case. $\endgroup$– PM 2RingCommented Mar 3, 2019 at 14:35
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$\begingroup$ "they annihilate each other in a way akin to destructive interference" This is incorrect. There is no relation be tween annihilation and interference. $\endgroup$– my2ctsCommented Nov 7, 2020 at 18:54
1 Answer
Destructive interference occurs without any release of energy. it happens like this, 1-1 equals zero. When destructive interference occurs, there is supposed to be no release of energy because mass is in reality, large amounts of energy packed together. If the mass is annihilated, the energy must be annihilated too.
This section seems to be the root of your misunderstanding.
If two waves interfere their energy is still conserved. Suppose we have two steady coherent beams of light which cross in some region of space. There will be the same amount of energy entering that region as exiting it, although within that region there will be positions with complete destructive interference.
Similarly with matter and antimatter. The same amount of energy enters the anhilation reaction as leaves it.
Also, both matter and antimatter have positive energy. There is no -1, so you don’t get 1-1=0 but rather 1+1=2.
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$\begingroup$ Okay, so the particle anti particle pairs that zip in and out of existence every time both have positive mass? $\endgroup$ Commented Mar 3, 2019 at 17:14
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