A few physicists have discovered how to create matter from light, an achievement that was thought impossible when the idea was raised for the first time for 80 years.
Breit-Wheeler theory, presented in 1934 by two physicists whose respective surnames takes its name, he proposed that it should be possible to convert light into matter through the shock of only two particles of light (photons), to create an electron and a positron, predicted more simple method to achieve this.
We found that the calculation was well informed from the theoretical point of view, but Breit and Wheeler never expected that someone physically demonstrated his prediction, since it was considered that there was no plausible technical means to set in motion the singular process.
It has never been observed in the laboratory, and earlier experiments to try to generate the process and observe it duly have pointed out the addition of massive particles of high energy.
The new research, the team of Oliver Pike, from Imperial College London in the United Kingdom, shows for the first time how could demonstrate in practice the Breit-Wheeler theory. This “Hadron foton-foton” that would make the light directly in the field using technology that is already available, would be a new type of high energy physics experiment.
These experiments recreate a process that was important in the first 100 seconds of existence of the universe and is also seen in gamma-ray bursts, which are the largest explosions in the universe and are loaded with many mysteries.
