Positronium

This article is about the exotic atom. For the hydrogen isotope, see Isotopes of hydrogen § Hydrogen-1 (protium).
An electron and positron orbiting around their common centre of mass. An s state has zero angular momentum, so orbiting around each other would mean going straight at each other until the pair of particles is either scattered or annihilated, whichever occurs first. This is a bound quantum state known as positronium.
Antimatter
A Feynman diagram showing the annihilation of an electron and a positron (antielectron), creating a photon that later decays into an new electron–positron pair.
Antiparticles

Onia

Concepts and phenomena
Devices
Uses
Scientists

Positronium (Ps) is a system consisting of an electron and its anti-particle, a positron, bound together into an exotic atom, specifically an onium. Unlike hydrogen, the system has no protons. The system is unstable: the two particles annihilate each other to predominantly produce two or three gamma-rays, depending on the relative spin states. The energy levels of the two particles are similar to that of the hydrogen atom (which is a bound state of a proton and an electron). However, because of the reduced mass, the frequencies of the spectral lines are less than half of those for the corresponding hydrogen lines.