PIRSA:11030070

Antimatter Without Antiparticles

Baker, D. (2011). Antimatter Without Antiparticles. Perimeter Institute. https://pirsa.org/11030070

Baker, Dave. Antimatter Without Antiparticles. Perimeter Institute, Mar. 01, 2011, https://pirsa.org/11030070 

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:11030070,
            doi = {10.48660/11030070},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/11030070},
            author = {Baker, Dave},
            keywords = {Quantum Foundations},
            language = {en},
            title = {Antimatter Without Antiparticles},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2011},
            month = {mar},
            note = {PIRSA:11030070 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }

Dave Baker University of Michigan–Ann Arbor

DOI 10.48660/11030070
Collection
Talk Type Scientific Series
Subject

Abstract

The nature of antimatter is examined in the context of algebraic quantum field theory. It is shown that the notion of antimatter is more general than that of antiparticles. Properly speaking, then, antimatter is not matter made up of antiparticles --- rather, antiparticles are particles made up of antimatter. We go on to discuss whether the notion of antimatter is itself completely general in quantum field theory. Does the matter-antimatter distinction apply to all field theoretic systems? The answer depends on which of several possible criteria we should impose on the space of physical states.