Excess of antimatter counterpart of the electron
Source :The Hindu
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Why in News?

Researchers from the Raman Research Institute (RRI), Bengaluru, an autonomous institution of the Department of Science and Technology in a new study elaborates the excess number of high energy particles of the antimatter counterpart of the electrons, called positrons

Key Facts

• Cosmic rays while propagating through the Milky Way galaxy interact with matter producing other cosmic rays, primarily electrons and positrons.
• The authors argue that these new cosmic rays are the origin of the ‘positron excess’ phenomenon.
• Over the years astronomers have observed an excess of antimatter counterpart of the electron or positrons having an energy of more than 10 giga-electronvolts, or 10 GeV.
  • Behaviour of positrons between 10 and 300 GeV is what astronomers call the ‘positron excess’.
• Nevertheless, the researchers considered simple geometrical structures of the molecular clouds, whereas real molecular clouds have complex geometries.

Positron :
Positron is a subatomic particle whose mass is the same as that of an electron and numerically equal but positively charged particle. The positron was discovered in 1932.

What is Antimatter?

• Antimatter is defined as matter that is composed of the antiparticles of the corresponding particles of ordinary matter.
• a particle and its anti-particle (for example, a proton and an antiproton) have the same mass, but opposite electric charge, and other differences in quantum numbers.
  • For instance a proton has positive charge while an antiproton has negative charge.

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