Positron

A positron is the antiparticle of the electron. It is antimatter, has an electric charge of +1, a spin of 1/2, and the same mass as an electron. When a positron annihilates with an electron, their mass is converted into energy in the form of two gamma ray photons. See Electron-positron annihilation. A positron may be generated by positron emission radioactive decay, or the interaction of photons of energy greater than 1.022 MeV with matter. This process is called pair production, as it generates both an electron and a positron from the energy of the photon. The existence of positron was first postulated in 1928 by Paul Dirac. In 1932, a positron was observed by Carl D. Anderson, who gave the positron its name. Interestingly, Anderson also suggested, unsuccessfully, to rename electrons to "negatron."

The Positron in Fiction

The most famous use of the positron in fiction was Isaac Asimovs use in his robots Positronic brains. It is likely that he chose to use positrons because they were relatively newly-discovered when he was first writing about the robots. Perhaps in an homage to Asimov, in the Star Trek universe, the android Data (and his brother Lore, "daughter" Lal, and other sundry related androids) also has a Positronic Brain.

Particles: Electron	Muon > Tauon	Muon neutrino \| Tau neutrino
Antiparticles : Positron	Antimuon > Antitauon	Muon antineutrino \| Tau antineutrino

Positron

The Positron in Fiction

See also

positron.search.ipupdater.com