The theory states that if two photons are mashed together enough, it can create matter. This is an electron-positron couple, which converts light into mass according to Einstein's theory.This is the Breit-Wheeler method, which was first described by John A. Wheeler and Gregory Breit in 1934. We have every reason to believe that it will work.However, it has been difficult to observe the pure phenomenon that only two photons can create. This is due to the fact that the photons must be very energetic (i.e. We don't yet have the technology to make a gamma laser.Brookhaven National Laboratory physicists claim they have a solution. They use the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider of Brookhaven National Laboratory (RHIC), which allows them to observe the Breit-Wheeler process.Zhangbu Xu, Brookhaven Lab physicist, stated that Breit and Wheeler had already recognized this was almost impossible in their paper."Lasers didn't even exist yet! Breit and Wheeler suggested an alternative: accelerating heavyions. Their alternative is exactly what RHIC is doing.What does accelerated ions have in common with photon collisions, however? We can help you understand.As the collider's title suggests, this involves accelerating ions, which are atomic nuclei that have been stripped of their electrons. The electrons and protons within the nucleus have a negative charge, so removing them leaves the nucleus with an additional positive charge. The resulting ion will have a stronger positive charge if it is heavier than the element.The team used 79 protons and a powerful charge to create gold ions. If gold ions are driven at high speeds, they can generate a circular magnetic force that is as strong as the perpendicular electrical field in the collider. These equal fields can create electromagnetic particles or photons if they cross."So, when the ions move close to the speed light, there are a bunch photons around the gold nucleus traveling with it like a Cloud," Xu explained.The RHIC accelerates ions to relativistic speeds. This is a speed that is significantly faster than the speed of light. The speed of the light speed at which the gold ions were subject to acceleration was 99.995 percent.Here is the magic: If two ions miss each other, their two cloud of photons can interact and collide. Although collisions can't be seen by themselves, the electron-positron pairs which result from them can.It's not enough just to detect an electron-positron couple.Diagram showing photon collisions caused by the near-miss of goldions. (Brookhaven Lab).This is because photons generated by electromagnetic interaction are virtual, popping in and out briefly of existence and with a fraction of the mass as their'real counterparts.Two real photons must collide in order to make a Breit-Wheeler process - not two virtual ones, or a virtual and real photon.The virtual particles behave as real photons at relativistic speeds. The Breit-Wheeler process generates electron-positron pairs. This is done by calculating the angles between electron and positron in the generated pair.The angle between the particles can identify the type of collision, which includes virtual-virtual and virtual-real. The angle between the electron-positron pairs produced during the experiment was analyzed by the researchers.The angles were consistent with collisions of real photons, a Breit-Wheeler process in action."We also measured all energy, mass distributions and quantum numbers. These results are consistent with theoretical calculations of what would happen with actual photons," stated Daniel Brandenburg, Brookhaven Lab physicist."Our results show clear evidence that matter-antimatter pairs can be created in one step from collisions with light, as predicted by Breit & Wheeler."One argument that could be made is that until we collide photons with energy similar to gamma radiations, we won't be able to detect the pure, single photon Breit-Wheeler photon.The team's work is still very compelling. It shows that Breit and Wheeler are on the right track.This space will be closely monitored by us.The research was published in Physical Review Letters.
