# What would happen if a positron and a proton collided?

**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-positron-and-a-proton-collided/154927
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 13, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-positron-and-a-proton-collided/154927 "2003-02-13T21:38:08Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![SPOOFE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@SPOOFE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SPOOFE)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-positron-and-a-proton-collided/154927/1 "2003-02-13T21:38:08Z")

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Okay, so if matter and anti-matter collided, they would annihilate each other. The anti-matter version of an electron is the positron, which has a positive charge instead of a negative charge. So what happens if a positron collided with a proton (ignoring for the moment the magnetic repulsion they’d have)? It would still be a matter/anti-matter contact, but they wouldn’t be the proper opposite counterparts for each other.

Does a matter/anti-matter annihilation occur only with electron/positron and/or proton/negatron contact, or would any combination of the above work?

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### Author: ![Philster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/13edae/32.png) [@Philster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Philster)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-positron-and-a-proton-collided/154927/2 "2003-02-13T21:49:13Z")

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Here ya go…possibly the discovery of a new particle from it:

[http://www.tau.ac.il/taunews/97spring/nature.html](http://www.tau.ac.il/taunews/97spring/nature.html)

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### Author: ![MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/bb73d2/32.png) [@MC\_Master\_of\_Ceremonies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MC_Master_of_Ceremonies)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2003, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-a-positron-and-a-proton-collided/154927/3 "2003-02-13T21:57:49Z")

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Remember though, that antimatter only means particles which have equal and opposite quantum properties, so from the pov of the proton, a positron is not antimatter. Thefore it’s a case of two different particles colliding, rather than two antiparticles colliding.