Showing posts with label annihilation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label annihilation. Show all posts

Pair Annihilation

Positron and Electron coalesce to produce atleast two photons

e⁺ + e⁻→2𝛾

Annihilation into three or more Photons is possible but less likely. Each extra photon tends to supress the rate of annihilation by a factor of order of magnitude of fine structure constant 1/137.

A Positron moves thru matter and forms ion pairs giving up energy in the process. There is about 2% chance that a Positron will hit an electron and annihilate.

But more likely output is that Positron will stop and become attracted to an electron. The atom formed by these two particles is called Positronium.

The Positron-Electron system drops into successively lower energy states, emitting (low energy) photons, until it arrives in ground state.


Properties of Positronium

The lowest Bohr orbit of Positronium is one for which n=1 and l=0, so that the lowest is an S-state.

The S state has fine structure due to the spins of particles; when the two spins are oppositely directed, the atom is in a ¹S state. When the two spins are parallel, it is in a ³S state, and has higher energy.

The triplet state is a meta stable state and has longer life time than singlet state.

The life time of singlet state was revealed by J.Pirenne, J A wheeler and is of order 10⁻¹º Sec.

The life time of Triplet state was revealed by Ore & Powell and is about 1.4x10⁻⁷ Sec.

Annihilation radiation emitted by combination of electron-Positron pair in ¹S state should consist of two gamma ray photons emitted simultaneously.

Radiation from ³S state of this system should consist of 3 𝛾 ray Photons emitted simultaneously.

The first experimental evidence for formation of Positronium was obtained by M. Deutsch, who observed time delay between emission of Positron from ²²Na and appearance of annihilation photon from substance in which Positrons are observed. Several gases N₂, O₂ etc are used as absorbers of Positrons. The time delay is due to formation of Positronium.