Home > Terms > English (EN) > antiparticle

antiparticle

The complementary particle to every subatomic particle, identical in mass and, if charged, identical in charge magnitude but with opposite sign. If a particle has a magnetic (dipole) moment, its antiparticle has an equal and opposite magnetic moment. For example, the electron and positron comprise a particle–antiparticle pair. Because the electron was discovered first (and electrons are more abundant), the electron is the particle and the positron the antiparticle (antielectron), but this designation is arbitrary. The electron could just as well be called the antipositron. Collectively, antiparticles are called antimatter. When a particle and its antiparticle interact, they are annihilated, their energy living on in the form of gamma rays. The inverse process, pair production, is possible: A gamma ray photon interacting with an atomic nucleus may be annihilated, its energy taken up by an electron–positron pair. Some neutral particles are their own antiparticles (e.g., the photon and the neutral pion).

0
  • Part of Speech: noun
  • Synonym(s):
  • Blossary:
  • Industry/Domain: Weather
  • Category: Meteorology
  • Company: AMS
  • Product:
  • Acronym-Abbreviation:
Collect to Blossary

Member comments

You have to log in to post to discussions.

Terms in the News

Billy Morgan

Sports; Snowboarding

The British snowboarder Billy Morgan has landed the sport’s first ever 1800 quadruple cork. The rider, who represented Great Britain in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, was in Livigno, Italy, when he achieved the man-oeuvre. It involves flipping four times, while body also spins with five complete rotations on a sideways or downward-facing axis. The trick ...

Marzieh Afkham

Broadcasting & receiving; News

Marzieh Afkham, who is the country’s first foreign ministry spokeswoman, will head a mission in east Asia, the state news agency reported. It is not clear to which country she will be posted as her appointment has yet to be announced officially. Afkham will only be the second female ambassador Iran has had. Under the last shah’s rule, Mehrangiz Dolatshahi, a ...

Weekly Packet

Language; Online services; Slang; Internet

Weekly Packet or "Paquete Semanal" as it is known in Cuba is a term used by Cubans to describe the information that is gathered from the internet outside of Cuba and saved onto hard drives to be transported into Cuba itself. Weekly Packets are then sold to Cuban's without internet access, allowing them to obtain information just days - and sometimes hours - after it ...

Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB)

Banking; Investment banking

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution established to address the need in Asia for infrastructure development. According to the Asian Development Bank, Asia needs $800 billion each year for roads, ports, power plants or other infrastructure projects before 2020. Originally proposed by China in 2013, a signing ...

Spartan

Online services; Internet

Spartan is the codename given to the new Microsoft Windows 10 browser that will replace Microsoft Windows Internet Explorer. The new browser will be built from the ground up and disregard any code from the IE platform. It has a new rendering engine that is built to be compatible with how the web is written today. The name Spartan is named after the ...

Featured Terms

stanley soerianto
  • 0

    Terms

  • 107

    Blossaries

  • 6

    Followers

Industry/Domain: Travel Category: Travel sites

Pai

Once just a quiet village in northern Thailand, Pai is now a booming town that is part of the Mae Hong Son Loop stretching between Chiang Mai and Mae ...