Speaker
Description
It has been known for many years that an electron and its antiparticle, the positron, may together form a metastable hydrogen-like atom, known as positronium or Ps. In 1946, Wheeler speculated that two Ps atoms may combine to form the positronium molecule (Ps) stable with respect to auto-dissociation. In 2007 the existence of Ps was confirmed experimentally.
I will present a determination of the radiation-less and two photon decay rates of Ps. We employ a simple technique to compute the amplitudes and write the products of spinors in terms of gamma matrices, which reduces the computational time and provides more insights into the physics of a reaction. After testing the method with the well known problem of positronium, I will demonstrate that the previously published results are incorrect.
email address | mmubashe@ualberta.ca |
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Please select: Experiment or Theory | Theory |