Annihilation - definition
Annihilation - definition
Annihilation is a physical process, in which a particle and its antiparticle meet and annihilate each other, leading to the transformation of their rest mass into energy - usually in the form of electromagnetic radiation. This phenomenon occurs in accordance with the principle of conservation of energy and momentum, as well as other fundamental laws of physics, such as the conservation of electric charge, baryon or lepton number.
The best known example of annihilation is the interaction of an of the electron with positron, or its antiparticle. As a result of this reaction both particles disappear, and two or more photons gamma photons, whose total energy corresponds to the combined mass and kinetic energy of the annihilating particles. In laboratory conditions and in medical imaging technologies, such as positron emission tomography (PET), electron annihilation-positron plays a key role as a source of precise information about the distribution of the radioactive tracer in the body.
Annihilation can also occur between other particle-antiparticle pairs, such as proton-antiproton or neutron-antineutron, but in these cases the accompanying processes are more complex and often lead to the formation of mesons, which in turn decay into other particles. The phenomenon of annihilation has also a cosmological significance - it is an inseparable element of the Big Bang models and of the evolution of the early Universe, in which mutual annihilations of particles and antiparticles influenced the formation of present-day matter.
The mechanism of annihilation is described by particle physics and quantum field theory, in particular quantum electrodynamics. Annihilation observations and experiments are crucial for the study of antimatter, fundamental symmetries and for the development of accurate particle detection methods.
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