My minimal knowledge of matter/animatter interaction is that only light is released and they obliviate each other. is this the same for neutrinos?
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$\begingroup$ Related: physics.stackexchange.com/q/127502/123208 $\endgroup$– PM 2RingCommented May 19, 2021 at 2:25
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$\begingroup$ From 1986: Neutrino-antineutrino annihilation around a collapsar $\endgroup$– PM 2RingCommented May 19, 2021 at 2:34
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$\begingroup$ Also related, kind of: physics.stackexchange.com/q/549859/123208 $\endgroup$– PM 2RingCommented May 19, 2021 at 7:54
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$\begingroup$ So basically this is not unknown science? Surely somewhere there a Feynman diagram. I cant find it. $\endgroup$– JustinCommented May 20, 2021 at 5:27
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2$\begingroup$ Justin, there might be Feynman diagrams here: The annihilation of a neutrino-anti-neutrino pair into photons and the neutrino density in the universe, but it's paywalled. There's an approximate cross section formula in the abstract, but I don't know how to interpret it. $\endgroup$– PM 2RingCommented May 20, 2021 at 20:37
1 Answer
Matter-antimatter annihilations don't need to only turn into "light" (or more precisely "photons"), however that is what happens with electron/positron annihilation which is to my knowledge the most common antimatter interaction in the real world.
Neutrino-antineutrino annihilation is extremely rare because they're both scarcely interactive and scarcely abundant. Since the neutrino is coupled to the weak force and the EM force, I believe that neutrino-antineutrino annhiliation can produce photons or Z bosons/mesons (all with varying probabilities). Incidentally, anything that can decay into a antineutrino-neutrino pair (which a photon I believe) can be a product of their annihilation, as QFT is reversible. My certainty on this is not 100% so I'm happy to be corrected by someone better versed in the specifics.
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1$\begingroup$ "scarcely abundant" that bit isn't quite right. On earth the neutrino flux, just from our sun, is about 65billion per square centimeter per second (on a surface with normal towards the sun). Even intergalactic space is believed to have quite a high density. $\endgroup$ Commented May 19, 2021 at 2:04
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2$\begingroup$ Neutrinos are neutral, they don't couple to the EM force. $\endgroup$ Commented May 19, 2021 at 2:21
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2$\begingroup$ @SeñorO which is why EM is linear: photons don't couple to photons. $\endgroup$– JEBCommented May 19, 2021 at 3:21
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$\begingroup$ There are vast numbers of neutrinos (& antineutrinos) in the cosmic neutrino background, a relic from the Big Bang, but due to their extremely low energy, they barely interact with anything. $\endgroup$– PM 2RingCommented May 20, 2021 at 20:45