13 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: What causes the mutual annihilation of matter-antimatter reactions?
It's really not different from other kinds of particle decays or interaction/collision processes. There are many other possibilities that are not just annihilating into photons. An electron and a positron can even turn into a muon and an antimuon, if the energy is high enough.
Essentially, all processes that are possible will happen, at some point.
Comment by whatnodeaddogwilleat at 21/11/2024 at 23:23 UTC
3 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I am using a lot of imagination to fill in the blanks of actual nuclear physics knowledge, but: I can imagine what you're saying that many different reactions are possible and all happening probabilistically. After annihilation, the two protons depart in opposite directions at light speed. This seems highly unlikely to spontaneously reverse. So is the proton-generating annihilation just an event that is irreversible and thus the event that, on average, eventually happens?
(Focusing on electron-positron)