Do particles and anti-particles really annihilate each other?

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Michael Kiessling, Rutgers University
Jadwin Hall 343

In this talk I present theoretical evidence, based on non-perturbative semi-classical quantization techniques,  that what appears as the annihilation of Positronium (Ps) may in reality be just another electromagnetic transition from the hydrogenic pseudo-ground state of Ps to a true quantum-mechanical ground state near zero energy,  caused by the magnetic interactions of the particles. This ground state cannot be found by perturbing around the hydrogenic pseudo-ground state using the usual Feynman diagram techniques. Once in this tightly bound near-0 energy ground state, Ps would behave effectively like an ultralight neutral spin-0 boson --- the very type of particle currently thought to be the most likely explanation for the mysterious dark matter in the universe.