The Fate of an Anti-proton in our Environment...

What would the behavior of an Anti-Proton be in our environment? Would it pass threw an electron cloud and annihilate? I'm particularly curious if it would behave like a Cooper pair.
- James (age 33)
San Diego

Hi James,

Its life would be short and sweet, going out with a bang.   It's possible it could annihilate with an electron, giving rise to a neutrino and a few mesons, but that's pretty rare.   More probably it would bounce around until it found a proton, either free or inside a nucleus, and annihilate into mesons.

Cooper pairs involve two electrons bound together at low temperatures.  An anti-proton doesn't fit into this catagory.

 

LeeH

(published on 12/24/2014)