Re: Matter and antimatter

"srp" <srp2@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:442A744F.5050701@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Michael Lodman a icrit :
Sorry if this is a stupid question but my web searches have yielded no
results:

Lots of sources say that particles and antiparticles, such as positrons
and electrons, collide and annihilate each other. They don't ever say why
this is so.

Why does simply having the opposite charge in electrons and positrons
result in annihilation?

It is not only a matter of having opposite charges. The particles
have to be totally identical _except_ for charge to be antiparticles
of one another.

Electron/positron is such a case.

As to why this occurs, this is a good question. Actually it is the
fundamental question.

It is an _observed_ phenomenon, just like electron/positron pair
creation from photons of energy 1.022 MeV or higher (that was
predicted by Dirac), that remains to be fully explained.

Andri Michaud


I've often thought that the annihilation concept is unnecessary.
If an electron and positron converge on each other from infinity,
classically they reach the speed of light at about the proton diameter
separation. This provides half the annihilation energy.

If they converge still further and merge into a neutral particle or orbit
each other, they could easily reach/release the observed "annihilation"
energy.
The resulting particle or complex would be light and uncharged (similar to a
neutrino but heavier) and be non-interacting and hard to detect (like the
neutrino).



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