Annihilations

Annihilations are different from decays because in an annihilation a matter and an antimatter particle completely annihilate into energy, whereas in a particle decay some of that particle's mass is converted into energy, and the rest of the mass is manifested in the mass of new particles.

During an annihilation, a matter and antimatter particle interact with each other, converting the energy of their previous existence into a very energetic force carrier particle (a gluon, W/Z, or photon). These force carriers, in turn, may decay to other particles.

Quite often, physicists will annihilate two particles at tremendous energies in order to create new, massive particles. Many events can involve annihilations, weak and/or strong interactions. Go to the next page to look at several examples.