pair production

noun

1. Physics. the simultaneous creation of a particle and its antiparticle by a nucleus or particle in an excited state, as when a photon is absorbed.

noun

1. the production of an electron and a positron from a gamma-ray photon in a strong field as that passes close to an atomic nucleus

1. The simultaneous creation of a subatomic particle and its antiparticle from some other particle or a field fluctuation. A high-energy gamma ray photon, for example, can spontaneously create an electron-positron pair in a strong electric field. Pair production is essential to theories of particle physics; pair production from gamma rays is used to detect such rays in pair production telescopes, since electrons and positrons are easily detected.