JAPC - Antimatter in space

Speaker: Dr. Richard J Drachman, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

Topic: "Antimatter in space"

Time: 2:00 PM, Friday, February 1st, 2008

Place: P-148 (refreshments will be served at 1:45 PM in P145A)

Abstract: One of the tools that can be used to understand what is going on in the neighborhood of the Galactic Center is the gamma radiation that has been observed for the last thirty years. The main component of this radiation results from the annihilation of positron-electron pairs and centers around an energy of 511 keV. But there is also continuum radiation from the annihilation of the bound positronium system. I will review the physics of low-energy annihilation and show how the line shape and width and the amount of positronium annihilation can give clues to the conditions existing at the source. If time permits, I will also discuss the interaction of anti-hydrogen and hydrogen atoms and their annihilation signature.

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