In 1996 physicists created an anti-atom of hydrogen. In such an atom, which is t

Question

In 1996 physicists created an anti-atom of hydrogen. In such an atom, which is the antimatter equivalent of an ordinary atom, the electrical charges of all the component particles are reversed. Thus the nucleus of an anti-atom is made of an anti-proton, which has the same mass as a proton but bears a negative charge, while the electron is replaced by an anti-electron (also called a positron) with the same mass as an electron, but bearing a positive charge. Would you expect the energy levels, emission spectra, and atomic orbitals of an antihydrogen atom to be different from those of a hydrogen atom? What would happen if an anti-atom of hydrogen collided with a hydrogen atom?

Explanation / Answer

Since we are told that only the *charges* are revered, wewould expect a *similiar* atom. We would have no reason not toanticipate that the positron orbits in the familiar 1s shell.Similarly, I see no reason (given, at least) that would indicateany different spectrum, as long as we assume that the positron canundergo electronic excitation (ie jump to a new shell) and thenundergo radiationless deactivation, or do so by following a Balmer,Paschen, Lyman, etc series, to emit radiation. I'm not an expert onthis, but I don't see any reason why we would expectdifferently. As a rule of thumb, anti-matter+matter=annhilation.

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