How much energy is released in an electron-positron annihilation reaction?

Question

I know very little about this topic, but my guess is that the energy would be equal to the total mass of the electron and positron times the square of the speed of light. Is that completely off?

Answer 1

The other answer are not really correct.
It depends on how fast the particles are
moving. For example, suppose the electron
and positron are headed for each other with
a momentum of 10 MeV/c for one and -10 MeV/c
for the other, then they each have
energy, sqrt(10^2 + 0.511^2) = 1.12 MeV and so the
total energy released is 2.24 MeV.

The point is, you add the energies which include not
just rest mass, but kinetic energy also. This pricinple
is important in linear colliders where electron positron
annihilation is used to get very large energies used to
then create heavy particles.

Answer 2

Positron Electron Annihilation

Answer 3

Electron Positron Annihilation

Answer 4

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RE:
How much energy is released in an electron-positron annihilation reaction?
I know very little about this topic, but my guess is that the energy would be equal to the total mass of the electron and positron times the square of the speed of light. Is that completely off?

Answer 5

A total of 1.022 MeV since both the electron and positron have a mass of .511MeV. This energy comes in the form of two or three gamma ray photons depending on the relative spins of the electron and positron.

Answer 6

A total of 1.022 MeV since both the electron and positron have a mass of .511MeV. This energy comes in the form of two or three gamma ray photons depending on the relative spins of the electron and positron.

Answer 7

Sounds good to me. You actually get two gamma ray photons of 511 kev each. Run the numbers and see if that matches your hypothesis.