Science News link: https://science-news.co/scientists-create-matter-from-pure-light-proving-the-breit-wheeler-effect/
Archive link: https://archive.is/AeYlu
The Breit-Wheeler effect, postulated as early as 1934, describes the conversion of light into matter. With the theory physicists Gregory Breit and John Wheeler were able to prove that when two high-energy photons collide, a positron and an electron arise, i.e. matter is formed. An experiment has now proven this theory for the first time. In the context of his special theory of relativity, Einstein described the natural law of the equivalence of mass and energy (E = mc²) as early as 1905. According to this, energy and matter are equivalent and can be converted into one another. One direction of matter and energy is omnipresent. It takes place permanently in the sun, for example when atomic nuclei fuse and energy is given off in the form of radiation.
[...] A team led by Zhangbu Xu from the Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) has now experimentally tested the almost hundred-year-old theory using the STAR detector on the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). According to their publication in the Physical Review Letters, they collided gold nuclei accelerated to 99.99 percent of the speed of light. They examined the released decay products for pairs of electrons and positrons whose mass distribution, energy and quantum states corresponded to those of the Breit-Wheeler effect. In total, the physicists were able to find 6,085 electron-positron pairs with the appropriate features. In an additional experiment, the scientists also checked whether the photons generated during the collision had the characteristics of normal light particles, which was also confirmed.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @07:26AM
I bet they could create some nice vaginas with teeth which beg for attention and money every second of every day.
(Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @07:35AM
"You should go to a rodeo sometime." Eric lectured Sally. Sally was not programmed by the rope or hose, but she knew full well what Eric was talking about when he grabbed that hammer.
Soup coming to a boil.
The hairy beast paused to urinate in the forest, having eluded capture by the humans. With his dirt encrusted fingernails he carved out a circle on his forehead, and a small sparrow flew out flooding the beast with copious dopamine.
Give the bird a tail.
========
"You've breathed your last!" cried the penis. "I'll not enter your establishment ever again." The Lonely Vagina Hotel would never see Mr. Penis enter again, except by way of a BACK DOOR.
Mystery meat.
The humming coming from the overworked pickle formed a peculiar shape as it exhaled a day's worth of soup now brought to steam.
Slime is real.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @07:45AM (3 children)
So, radiation is partially in the form of photons as well (the light that gets to earth). So, could we then also assume that within the sun a part of the photons created merge back into matter again, due to collisions happening there?
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @07:52AM (1 child)
That is the theory and the math works out, but the positrons aren't expected to last very long. The only part that surprises me about this article is that this hasn't been done experimentally before.
(Score: 5, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Thursday September 16 2021, @08:12AM
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @06:39AM
Yes. But pair production happens far more frequently in very massive stars near the end of their fuel. The photons in the cores of these stars become so intense that many of them materialise into electron-positron pairs. This greatly reduces the outward radiation pressure that keeps the star from collapsing under its own gravity. This sudden gravitational collapse causes a runaway fusion reaction that completely blows the star apart without leaving any remnant behind. This is called a pair-instability supernova [wikipedia.org], and can happen with a star between 130 to 250 solar masses with a moderate metallicity. The core of such a star where this process happens would be at least 300 million kelvins, with the radiation produced being largely in the gamma radiation range. This is more than an order of magnitude greater than the temperature at the core of the sun. Pair production happens in the sun's core too, but not to the point that it reduces the outward radiation pressure it generates significantly.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @08:03AM
Long way from "Tea, Earl Gray, hot."
(Score: 4, Interesting) by stormwyrm on Thursday September 16 2021, @08:03AM (2 children)
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 2) by pvanhoof on Friday September 17 2021, @06:59AM (1 child)
Would' t that require a Higgs Boson to capture that momentum and create locality? Therefor the experiment ain't creating mass from pure light, but from pure light in a vacuum (which contains plenty of Higgs Bosons). I guess you captured that with 'because any other mass nearby', as that implies that there are Higgs Bosons nearby too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @04:06PM
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Thursday September 16 2021, @09:06AM
My first thought when I heard about this was Portal light bridges
(Score: -1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @09:17AM
What about the Brietbart-OafKeebler effect, that creates electoral fraud out of darkness and ignorance, and fear and hatred? The energy conversion seem to be more efficient, if untimately uncontrolled and destructive.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @02:10PM
It's right there in the first few pages. Who needs fancy physicists when you've got all the answers in one place?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @05:20PM
That would be yet another interesting symmetry in the universe.
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @07:54PM
What are your thoughts on Light Matter? *ducks*
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @08:50PM (2 children)
I'm just a laymen when it comes to this stuff but I feel like this is similar to an experiment done back in the 90's.
https://www.nytimes.com/1997/09/16/science/scientists-use-light-to-create-particles.html [nytimes.com]
Maybe just reconfirming the theory with better data?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 16 2021, @08:53PM
Also again in 2010.
https://arxiv.org/abs/1004.5398 [arxiv.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @03:41AM
At some level it also seems like a contrary experiment, since most people would prefer to make some gold, instead of destroying some gold.
Yes, I know the amounts are minuscule, but there's the principle of it all.
(Score: 2) by legont on Friday September 17 2021, @02:42PM (1 child)
Create mass - push, back to light - pull, repeat.
"Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17 2021, @05:28PM
https://www.wired.com/2015/07/really-propellantless-space-drives-still-not-thing/ [wired.com]
tldr: nope