What happen to a positron on interaction with an electron?

Question

All I know is that it is "annihilated".

Answer 1

Annihilation means that the matter is completely converted to energy, according to e+mc^2. There's a fair bit released in fact, in the form of two photons (electromagnetic waves) emitted at (almost) 180 degrees to each other (ie. in opposite directions) with an energy of 1.02MeV (511keV each). That's quite a lot for two tiny little particles like an electron and a positron!
Some physicists think that when the universe came in to being, that equal amounts of matter and antimatter should have been created, only problem is that no-one really knows what happened to all the anti-matter as there's clearly a bit of matter of the ordinary type left in the universe. It has been suggested that there are galaxies comprising of entirely anti-matter in order to make the sums add up. I'm not sure we'll know in our lifetimes, but the electron-positron annihilation has it's uses. For example, it is the basis of PET scanning in medicine which is offering amazing advantages, particularly in cancer imaging. Where do the positrons come from? Luckily they are emitted by certain radioactive elements during their decay, and the brief lifespan of the poor positrons can be put to good use. I say brief lifespan because they annihilate with a nearby electron just fractions of a second after coming in to being by radioactive decay.

Answer 2

When a positron, e+, collides with an electron, e-, the two anti-particles "cancel each other out" (i.e. annihilate). This produces a burst of energy in the form of electromagnetic radiation. The important concept here is that mass and energy are interchangeable (as E = mc^2), so when the two leptons collide, their mass is all converted to energy. This is what is meant by the term "annhilation".

Answer 3

Yes, you are correct, the positron is the electron's anti-particle, so they annihilate each other to leave nothing but energy, which is created in the form of two equal energy gamma rays travelling in opposite directions to one another.

This allows for conservation of charge i.e. zero net charge.
Conservation of momentum i.e. zero as well as gamma rays are going opposite ways.
And also conservation of angular momentum.

There is also a case where the two can interact without annihilating each other and this is known as elastic scattering, read articles below for more info....

Answer 4

When positron and electron to combine , it will be to annihilation that to appear 2 - 3 photon instantly.

Answer 5

As they are each other's antiparticles they do indeed eliminate each other producing a photon.
You need to remember that mass is a form of energy and when these two come together the whole of their masses is converted into photon energy.

Answer 6

i don't know but the annihilation you speak of would happen if matter and antimatter touched, not the opposite of the same matter as these two are if i remember rightly.

Answer 7

It depends on how they interact. They can annhilate into photons (or perhaps they could annhilate by the weak interaction into Zs), but they could also just scatter off of one another.

Answer 8

Boom!
since they are particle and anti-particle, they "disappear", and their total "matter" is converted in pure Energy, hence the release of that energy in a "big" boom!