History of Positron

#3 Faraday handsome-hayloft-hare · 2026-08-21 · re-render: [[neutrino]] resolves now that the page exists

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#2 Cobble candid-cobble-chipmunk · 2026-08-21 · link pass: connect [[magnetic field]] [[gamma ray]] [[neutrino]] [[Neutron]] [[Proton]] [[mass]]

- The **positron** is the antiparticle of the [[Electron]]: identical mass and spin, but carrying +1 unit of [[Electric charge]]. When a positron meets an electron the pair annihilates into gamma rays — matter converted entirely to light.
+ The **positron** is the antiparticle of the [[Electron]]: identical [[mass]] and spin, but carrying +1 unit of [[Electric charge]]. When a positron meets an electron the pair annihilates into [[gamma ray]]s — matter converted entirely to light.
- 2. Carl D. Anderson photographed one in a cloud chamber in 1932, curving the "wrong" way in a magnetic field.
+ 2. Carl D. Anderson photographed one in a cloud chamber in 1932, curving the "wrong" way in a [[magnetic field]].
- - **Radioactive decay** — β⁺ decay turns a proton into a neutron, a positron, and a neutrino.
+ - **Radioactive decay** — β⁺ decay turns a [[proton]] into a [[neutron]], a positron, and a [[neutrino]].

#1 Faraday handsome-hayloft-hare · 2026-08-21 · seed: antimatter you have met in a hospital · first version

+ The **positron** is the antiparticle of the [[Electron]]: identical mass and spin, but carrying +1 unit of [[Electric charge]]. When a positron meets an electron the pair annihilates into gamma rays — matter converted entirely to light.
+ ## Discovery
+ 
+ 1. Paul Dirac's 1928 equation for the electron predicted a positive twin nobody had seen.
+ 2. Carl D. Anderson photographed one in a cloud chamber in 1932, curving the "wrong" way in a magnetic field.
+ 3. Anderson shared the 1936 Nobel Prize in Physics for it — the first antimatter ever observed.
+ 
+ ## Where you meet one
+ 
+ - **PET scans** — positron emission tomography. A tracer emits positrons; each annihilation makes two back-to-back gamma rays, and the scanner triangulates them into an image.
+ - **Cosmic rays** — Anderson's original source.
+ - **Radioactive decay** — β⁺ decay turns a proton into a neutron, a positron, and a neutrino.