Definition of antiparticle Antiparticle

an•ti•par•ti•cle

We found 5 definitions of antiparticle from 5 different sources.

What does antiparticle mean?

WordNet

Noun

Plural: antiparticles

antiparticle - a particle that has the same mass as another particle but has opposite values for its other properties; interaction of a particle and its antiparticle results in annihilation and the production of radiant energy

elementary particle, fundamental particle (physics) a particle that is less complex than an atom; regarded as constituents of all matter

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Wiktionary

antiparticle (Noun)
A subatomic particle corresponding to another particle with the same mass, spin and mean lifetime but with charge, parity, strangeness and other quantum number s flipped in sign.

OmegaWiki DictionaryOmegaWiki Dictionary Ω

antiparticle
Particle having the same mass, spin, isospin as a particle, but having all additive quantum numbers opposite to those of its respective particle.

Wikipedia

Corresponding to most kinds of particle, there is an associated antiparticle with the same mass and opposite charges.

Even electrically neutral particles, such as the neutron, are not identical to their antiparticle. In the example of the neutron, the 'ordinary' particle is made out of quarks and the antiparticle out of antiquarks.

Particle-antiparticle pairs can annihilate each other if they are in appropriate quantum states. They can also be produced in various processes. These processes are used in today's particle accelerators to create new particles and to test theories of particle physics. High energy processes in nature can create antiparticles. These are visible in cosmic rays and in certain nuclear reactions. The word antimatter properly refers to (elementary) antiparticles, composite antiparticles made with them (such as antihydrogen) and to larger assemblies of either.

History.

In 1932, soon after the prediction of positrons by Paul Dirac, Carl D. Anderson found that cosmic-ray collisions produced these particles in a cloud chamber— a particle detector in which moving electrons (or positrons) leave behind trails as they move through the gas.

The antiproton and antineutron were found by Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain in 1955 at the University of California, Berkeley. Since then the antiparticles of many other subatomic particles have been created in particle accelerator experiments. In recent years, complete atoms of antimatter have been assembled out of antiprot