Math Physics Seminar | Michael Kiessling, Rutgers | "Do particles and anti-particles really annihilate each other?" | 343 Jadwin Hall

Date
Sep 18, 2018, 4:30 pm4:30 pm
Location
Jadwin 343

Speaker

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Event Description

 In this talk I present theoretical evidence, based on non-perturbative semi-classical quantization techniques, that what appears as the annihilation of Positronium (Ps) may in reality be just another electromagnetic transition from the hydrogenic pseudo-ground state of Ps to a true quantum-mechanical ground state near zero energy,  caused by the magnetic interactions of the particles. This ground state cannot be found by perturbing around the hydrogenic pseudo-ground state using the usual Feynman diagram techniques. Once in this tightly bound near-0 energy ground state, Ps would behave effectively like an ultralight neutral spin-0 boson --- the very type of particle currently thought to be the most likely explanation for the mysterious dark matter in the universe.