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Aidyan
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I'm confused now... how can be antiparticles be detected in a bubble chamber which is made of ordinary matter? Why does a positron leave its trace interacting with the chamber gas without annihilating immediately?
Antimatter is charged, and charged particles ionize atoms in the bubble chamber, which leads to emission of photons along the track.Aidyan said:I'm confused now... how can be antiparticles be detected in a bubble chamber which is made of ordinary matter? Why does a positron leave its trace interacting with the chamber gas without annihilating immediately?
Vanadium 50 said:Why should there be immediate annihilation? Or more quantitatively, how "immediate" do you think it should be, and why? (Remember, if it lasts a microsecond, it will travel 1000 feet)
The range of coulomb interaction - attraction or repulsion - is much greater than the range for annihilation. There is a lot of 'distance' between electrons and atoms.Aidyan said:Hmmm... I don't feel this answers the question. Why is there any ionization at all and not an immediate annihilation at the first collision? What is observed are several collisons of a positron with many electrons, and yet no annihilation? That doesen't make sense to me.
Astronuc said:The range of coulomb interaction - attraction or repulsion - is much greater than the range for annihilation. There is a lot of 'distance' between electrons and atoms.
Antimatter is a type of matter that has the same mass as regular matter, but with opposite electrical charges. For example, the antimatter counterpart of an electron is a positron. When matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate each other, releasing large amounts of energy. This is what makes antimatter distinct from regular matter.
Antimatter is produced in particle accelerators through high-energy collisions between particles. It is used in scientific research to study fundamental particles and their interactions. It can also be used in medical imaging and cancer treatments.
A bubble chamber is a device used to detect and track the paths of subatomic particles produced in high-energy collisions. It consists of a superheated liquid, such as liquid hydrogen, that is placed in a container with a piston at one end. When a charged particle passes through the liquid, it ionizes the molecules, causing them to vaporize and form bubbles along its path, which can be photographed and analyzed.
The main advantage of using a bubble chamber is its ability to capture and track multiple particles simultaneously, allowing for detailed studies of particle interactions. However, bubble chambers have a limited size and can only capture particles with certain energies, making them less useful for studying high-energy particles.
While antimatter has the potential to be a highly efficient energy source due to its annihilation with matter, it is currently not feasible to store and use it in this way. The production of antimatter is extremely costly and requires large amounts of energy, making it impractical for use as an energy source at this time.