Tunneling and Pair Creation
Most recent answer: 11/15/2009
Q:
Does a tunneling event create pairs of oppositely charged particles just like pair production? I guess I really just don't see the difference.
- Laura (age 17)
Buffalo
- Laura (age 17)
Buffalo
A:
Tunneling is the name given to the quantum mechanical phenomenon of a particle overcoming a potential barrier. Pair production is the process of creating a particle-antiparticle pair. Both processes conserve charge. An example of non pair producing tunneling is the decay of certain nuclei by alpha particle emission such as U238 --> Th234 + He2. Both charge and energy are conserved but no pairs are produced.
An example of a pair production process is γ + Pb --> Pb + e- + e+ where the γ is a high energy photon.
LeeH
An example of a pair production process is γ + Pb --> Pb + e- + e+ where the γ is a high energy photon.
LeeH
(published on 11/15/2009)