Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A subatomic particle, such as a positron or antiproton, having the same spin, magnitude of electric charge, magnitude of magnetic moment, mass, and mean lifetime as the particle to which it corresponds, but the opposite sign of charge, opposite direction of magnetic moment, and opposite intrinsic parity.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun physics A subatomic particle corresponding to another particle with the same mass, spin and mean lifetime but with charge, parity, strangeness and other quantum numbers flipped in sign.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a particle that has the same mass as another particle but has opposite values for its other properties; interaction of a particle and its antiparticle results in annihilation and the production of radiant energy

Etymologies

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Examples

  • With similar methods an antiparticle to the neutron has subsequently been discovered, a discovery whose importance lies in the fact that the concept of the antiparticle was thereby extended to include also the neutral elementary particles.

    Nobel Prize in Physics 1959 - Presentation Speech 1964

  • And I’m no fan of the MP for Ladywood – though for years I considered her a kind of antiparticle Ann Widdicombe, whose honesty you can applaud even while disagreeing with her.

    January 18, 2004 Laban 2004

  • And I’m no fan of the MP for Ladywood – though for years I considered her a kind of antiparticle Ann Widdicombe, whose honesty you can applaud even while disagreeing with her.

    Archive 2004-01-18 Laban 2004

  • And I’m no fan of the MP for Ladywood – though for years I considered her a kind of antiparticle Ann Widdicombe, whose honesty you can applaud even while disagreeing with her.

    ‘Tis Pity She’s A Guardianista Laban 2004

  • The history of antimatter begins with the physicist Paul Dirac whose work in the late 1920s established the fact that for every particle there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with opposite charge.

    Santhosh Mathew, PhD: Seeking the Lost Seeds of Big Bang PhD Santhosh Mathew 2011

  • The neutrino has almost no mass, comes in three different "flavors," may have its own antiparticle and has been seen shifting from one flavor to another while shooting out from our sun, said physicist Phillip Schewe, communications director at the Joint Quantum Institute in Maryland.

    CERN: Light Speed May Have Been Exceeded By Subatomic Particle 2011

  • The history of antimatter begins with the physicist Paul Dirac whose work in the late 1920s established the fact that for every particle there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly matching the particle but with opposite charge.

    Santhosh Mathew, PhD: Seeking the Lost Seeds of Big Bang PhD Santhosh Mathew 2011

  • This is the force responsible for nuclear beta decay, which, for example, permits a neutron to decay into a proton, electron, and a third particle -- the neutrino which without extremely carefully designed experiments leaves no observable signatures of its own strictly speaking, it is the neutrino's antiparticle known as the antineutrino.

    Lisa Randall: CERN or Einstein? Interpreting the Findings Lisa Randall 2011

  • This is the force responsible for nuclear beta decay, which, for example, permits a neutron to decay into a proton, electron, and a third particle -- the neutrino which without extremely carefully designed experiments leaves no observable signatures of its own strictly speaking, it is the neutrino's antiparticle known as the antineutrino.

    Lisa Randall: CERN or Einstein? Interpreting the Findings Lisa Randall 2011

  • This process differs from what is expected for the bottom quark's antiparticle, the anti-bottom quark, and thus the symmetry is broken.

    The Nobel Prize in Physics 2008 - Illustrated Presentation 2008

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