Ultracold atoms simulate hard-to-observe matter-antimatter pair production
According to quantum electrodynamics, the theory describing interactions between light and electrically charged particles, a sufficiently strong electric field can, in principle, convert some of its energy into particles and their antimatter partners.
According to quantum electrodynamics, the theory describing interactions between light and electrically charged particles, a sufficiently strong electric field can, in principle, convert some of its energy into particles and their antimatter partners.
The short version
- A particle's antimatter partner has the same mass and, for electrically charged particles, the opposite electric charge.
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- The creation of particle–antiparticle pairs via an electric field and from the vacuum is known as the Schwinger effect.
What happened
As the production of these pairs is strongly suppressed at electric field strengths that can be realized in a laboratory setting, observing this effect experimentally has so far proved challenging. Researchers at the University of Science and Technology of China and other institutions have now introduced an experiment that could be used to simulate and study this rare particle production process.
Why it matters
"We were inspired by the Schwinger effect, the prediction that a strong electric field can spontaneously create electron-positron pairs from the vacuum," Zhen-Sheng Yuan, co-senior author of the paper, told Phys.org.
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