Electron-positron

Annihilation
Experimentation and theoretical
application in Positron Physics

Veronica Anderson, David Tsao, Mark A. Rodgers

COSMOS, UC Santa Cruz
 Overview

• The purpose of our project and experiment is

to measure (accurately) the mass of a
positron through the gamma-ray detection of
the annihilation between the positron and an
electron
 Antimatter
• In 1932 British physicist Paul Dirac derived the
equation E2=m2c4+p2c2
• This equation tells us that for every type of particle
of ordinary matter (e.g. protons and electrons) a
particle of opposite charge and certain quantum
properties exists, called antimatter
• Antimatter particles are rarely found in nature, and
are therefore difficult to detect
• Antimatter is usually created in the modern
universe during nuclear decays
 Positrons
• Positrons are the
antimatter equivalents
of electrons
• Positrons have a mass
equal to that of an
electron, but have an
opposite charge and
certain quantum
properties different
from those of the Artist’s conception of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories’
electron linac1, used for positron detection
electron
 Electron-positron Annihilation
• When matter and anti-matter collide,
they destroy each other in a flash of
high-energy radiation
• The gamma rays emitted in the
annihilation are easily detectable
• In an electron-positron annihilation
the g-rays are emitted linearly
• Sometimes the electron and positron
form a brief bond through the
electromagnetic force, creating
Positronium
• When electron-positron pairs first
form Positronium, the direction of the
energy emitted from their
annihilation will not be linear
 Positron detection
• The most practical method for
detecting positrons is measuring
the gamma emission of their
annihilation with electrons
• Many larger experiments utilize
particle accelerators, but we
used simpler apparatus
Photograph of the first
detection of the anti-
electron (positron), in
1932 at CERN
http://athena-
positrons.web.cern.ch/ATHE
NApositrons/wwwathena/an
derson.html
A large facility used for positron detection
(http://wwwpat.llnl.gov/H_Div/Positrons/PositronFacility.html)
 Objective
• Our primary objective was to detect the gamma-ray (g-ray)
emission of the annihilation during the collision of the
positron and electron
• From the g-ray emission we hoped to determine the mass
(m) of the positron itself
• Since Einstein’s equation E=mc2g tells us that mass and
energy are interchangeable, the energy of the emission
should directly correlate with the mass of the positron
• We also hoped to apply what we have learned about particle
physics and anti-matter to early universe astrophysics,
particularly the baryon asymmetry problem
 Apparatus
• We used a 22Na positron source
for our experiment. 22Na emits
most positrons (b-rays), in
addition to a small number of
gammas.
• We used a stationary aluminum
plate of about .5 cm thickness to
prevent positrons from directly
striking our detector
• Our detector was a Sodium Sodium Iodide Detector2 (http://detectors.saint-
gobain.com/Media/Documents/S0000000000000000003/oper
Iodide Scintillator 20manl 200304.pdf)

• The entire experiment was We fed our data into a Canberra

encased in lead bricks with Multi-channel Analyzer, and then
dimensions of about 5x10.5x20 transferred the data onto a
cm computer for analysis
 Our Apparatus

Scintillator

Digital
Lead Oscilloscope
Shielding

Canberra -24 V Power High

Below Screen Source Voltage
Canberra 35-Series Multi-channel Analyzer

Our Positron Data on the Analyzer

 Calibration
• To calibrate our Sodium Iodide
Scintillator, we used two g
sources of known energy levels:
137Cs and 133Ba

• The Cs isotope emitted a smooth

radiation curve with a peak
intensity of 662 KeV
• We also took a measurement
with no source to determine what
our background distribution
would be, and we found that our
Scintillator was picking up very
little noise Our apparatus in calibration
 Noise Reduction
Background Noise
1000

900

800

700
Number of Counts

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
0 500 1000 1500
Energy (kev)
 Data Collection
• We collected our data using a
Canberra 35-Series Multi-
channel Analyzer
• We compared the data we
received with the noise and with
a calibration sources--the Barium
isotope did not emit the spectrum
we had expected to see
• The image at right is displaying
the data that we received for the
gamma emission of the cesium Our Canberra Multi-channel Analyzer
source, with which we compared displaying Cesium data
our eventual positron (22Na)
annihilation energy
 Positron Data
5 Annihilation Energy of Positrons From a Sodium-22 Source
x 10
4

3.5

• This is a graph of the

Number of Counts

2.5

number of counts at
2
each energy level of the
1.5
photons emitted from the
1 Sodium-22 source
0.5 • The intensity peaks at
0
about 537 KeV
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600
Gamma Ray Energy (kev)
 Analysis
• We used several techniques for analysis of our data
• Using a computer program we wrote, we attempted to analyze the
energy of the detected gamma-rays
• Although the program failed to produce results, we were able to make
the calculations by hand
• We found that the intensity of the energy of detected gamma-rays
peaked at 537 KeV
• Theoretical values have the positron with a mass-energy of about 511
KeV
• Several discrepancies may account for the difference in energy detected
and the mass of the positron, especially the KE of the positron (and
possibly the electron as well)
 Calculations
E=mc2
E=537.0 keV (8.603x10-14J), c2=8.988x1016
m=(E/c2)
Mass (m) in kg=(8.603x10-14)/(8.988x10 -16)
m=9.561x10-31kg

Theoretical mass= 9.1095x10-31 kg

 Conclusions
• Using the value we measured for the energy of the gamma-ray emitted
from the annihilation, we were able to calculate the mass of the positron
in kg
• We calculated that the mass of the positron is 9.5499x10-31 kg, which is
spectacularly close to the accepted mass of the electron: 9.1095x10-31
kg
• Although we were slightly off from the mass we had hoped to find, our
error was very slight--we didn’t take KE or thermal energy into account
in our calculations
 Acknowledgments
We have not, fortunately, conducted this project alone. Among
those to whom we owe the greatest thanks are Paul Graham
and Dave Dorfan, our spectacular physics professors.
Other thanks:
Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Cruz
Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley
Santa Cruz Institute for Particle Physics
Fred Kuttner
John and Jason
Steve Kliewer
Stuart Briber
Nuri and Jessica (and the rest of the COSMOS staff)