How close does an anti-proton have to come to a proton to become annihilated?
And, when a ball of matter and anti-matter collide, will they completely annihilate, or will the initial impact blast them apart such that parts will stay intact? Does initial speed matter? Would we be able to partially annihilate a proton?
Antiparticles have oposite quantum numbers, so it means they also have oposite electric charge. Basicaly, they would attract as much as possible and, you know, kaboom. This is a compostite particle made of quarks, which under annihilation produce their gauge particles - gluons. These quickly undrego hadronization - will pair-up to produce mesons. These are unstable af so they decay. Ultimate fate is photons, electrons, positrons and neutrinos.
Even, antiproton can annihilate with neutrons, which makes sense given similar internal structure. Keep in mind that during conversions energies are preserved. So that when lighter particles are produced, they move faster. So yes, it would be ripped apart, kind of.
> Antiparticles have oposite quantum numbers, so it means they also have oposite electric charge. Basicaly, they would attract as much as possible and, you know, kaboom.
This is true, but an electron and nucleus also have opposite charge, yet the electron typically doesn't drop into the nucleus all the time.
And, when a ball of matter and anti-matter collide, will they completely annihilate, or will the initial impact blast them apart such that parts will stay intact? Does initial speed matter? Would we be able to partially annihilate a proton?