The Nature of Anti-matter?

[fatty_ashy]

hey guys!! it's been soo long since i've been here. Even the design has changed. nice one tormod. and look!! my FIRST EVER post/topic is still there!! -points excitedly to "Speed of light...instantatious Travel??"- hahha...sorry, just miss this palce too much

 

Anyway, this is suppose to be abt anti-matter right? heh. anyway, i was doing some reading when i came across an article briefly talking abt anti-matter, and i recalled reading some stuff abt it in some quantum physics book.

 

ok, the book basically said that all the negative energy levels are "full". (refering to the negative energy that Dirac got from the equation ""E²=m²c4 + p²c4"") when sufficient energy is given, a particle with negative energy jumps up and appears as a normal particle (e.g an electron). but this leaves behind a hole in the negative energy sea, and this appears(negative of a negative makes a positive right?) as the anti-particle. when this anti-particle meets the particle (e.g Postiron meets electron), the particle falls back into the hole (anti-particle) releasing the energy used for "pushing" the electron up into a positive energy state.

 

HOWEVER, I read somewhere else that an anti-particle was a particle with negative energy. (-E=mc2) so i'm really puzzled now. can anybody tell me what an anti-particle actually is? thanks guys

[Tormod]

Thanks, fatty. Good to see you back!

 

Do you remember the title of the book you were reading?

 

I'd suggest reading this Wikipedia article:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiparticle

 

Tormod

[fatty_ashy]

thanks for the URL. it was quite useful!

 

The book was "In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat". think that's it.

[fatty_ashy]

oh yeah, the other article that i was reading is here:

http://www.smcox.com/science/physics/anti.html

[Tormod]

Yeah, that is a good book, John Gribbin if I remember correctly.

 

Tormod

[Freethinker]

You might also want to read about his "Kittens".