2 upvotes, 1 direct replies (showing 1)
View submission: What causes the mutual annihilation of matter-antimatter reactions?
Is there a model for the actual interaction? How granularly do we understand that at one frame there are 2 massive particles and some subsequent one there aren't?
Comment by luckyluke193 at 24/11/2024 at 17:06 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This kind of process is modelled by quantum field theories – or more specifically for the process of electrons and positrons annihilating to photons, quantum electrodynamics.
The idea is that every kind of particle is a different wave of some fundamental fields – photons are waves of the electromagnetic field, electrons and positrons are two "opposite" types of waves in the electron field. Annihilation is a process where these two "opposite" waves collide, and two (or more) other kinds of waves come out.