How to Use positron in a Sentence

positron

noun
  • The cloud’s electric field would push the positron backward close to where the avalanche began.
    — Quanta Magazine, 6 May 2026
  • Electrons can then be added to create an electron-positron plasma.
    — Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 11 Dec. 2018
  • When excited, an atom can absorb a third photon, which strips away its positron entirely.
    — Adrian Cho, Science | AAAS, 4 Apr. 2018
  • The antiparticle version of an electron, for instance, is a positron.
    — Caroline Delbert, Popular Mechanics, 21 Sep. 2021
  • This is akin to what happens when an electron meets its antimatter counterpart, or positron.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 21 June 2026
  • That gamma ray would transform into an electron and its antimatter twin, a positron.
    — Quanta Magazine, 6 May 2026
  • Electrons have positrons, which are anti-electrons, while protons have antiprotons.
    — Dipangkar Dutta, The Conversation, 15 Dec. 2025
  • Antiprotons and positrons make up antimatter atoms, or anti-atoms.
    — Dipangkar Dutta, The Conversation, 15 Dec. 2025
  • But every once in a while, the team observed, an electron-positron pair hit the detector at a 140-degree angle.
    — Quanta Magazine, 14 June 2016
  • Like the sun on a bad day, this young magnetar releases occasional flares that blast out electrons, positrons and maybe heavier ions at near the speed of light.
    — Joshua Sokol, WIRED, 10 Mar. 2019
  • By contrast, the researchers observed that some electrons and positrons seem to be correlated in their emission direction.
    — Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 20 Dec. 2019
  • The electron, quark, and muon, for example, are paired with the positron, antiquark, and antimuon, respectively.
    — Sophia Chen, Wired, 19 Feb. 2020
  • As a result of this process, known as beta decay, the nucleus also emits an electron or its antimatter partner, the positron.
    — Paul Sutter, Ars Technica, 11 June 2024
  • The violent collision sprays a jet of electrons, positrons, and other particles down into a cloud at a random angle.
    — Quanta Magazine, 6 May 2026
  • Within each detector, two cones of tungsten would surround the beam pipe to screen out the electrons and positrons generated by decaying muons.
    — Byadrian Cho, science.org, 28 Mar. 2024
  • The intensity is large enough that electrons and their antiparticle, positrons, are produced from the vacuum.
    — Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 9 Nov. 2017
  • Bananas, which contain trace amounts of radioactive potassium, emit a positron every 75 minutes.
    — Sophia Chen, Wired, 19 Feb. 2020
  • Positronium is a short-lived, neutral atom-like system made of an electron and its antimatter counterpart, a positron.
    — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 20 Jan. 2026
  • Rarely, a proton in the oil will absorb an electron antineutrino to turn into a neutron while ejecting a positron—sort of the reverse of beta decay.
    — Byadrian Cho, science.org, 11 Jan. 2023
  • An electron, for instance, can appear along with a positron, which is positively charged; the two charges cancel each other out to preserve the total charge of zero.
    — Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 1 May 2023
  • But physicists have a variety of strategies to squeeze more electrons and positrons into smaller areas to achieve more of these unlikely collisions.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 2 Apr. 2025
  • When this collision occurs, the proton transforms into a neutron and ejects a positron, the antimatter version of an electron.
    — Kenneth Chang, New York Times, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Two of the products of that decay are an electron and a positron, which can be picked up by detectors, allowing the production of the J/ψ mesons to be registered.
    — John Timmer, Ars Technica, 3 Apr. 2023
  • One idea suggests that the electron-positron pairs are deflected by weak intergalactic magnetic fields and that this bounces low-energy gamma-rays out of our line of sight.
    — Robert Lea, Space.com, 5 Nov. 2025
  • The first stage will see the FCC collide electrons with positrons, the antimatter electron counterpart.
    — Avery Thompson, Popular Mechanics, 16 Jan. 2019
  • The effect is particularly pronounced for lightweight particles like electrons and positrons.
    — IEEE Spectrum, 2 Apr. 2025
  • This causes the radioligand to decay, and emit positrons, the antimatter counterpart to electrons.
    — Calum Chace, Forbes, 21 Apr. 2023
  • These electrons and positrons could have enough oomph to separate the electrons from their molecules and get an avalanche going, even if the electric field stays well below the critical threshold.
    — Quanta Magazine, 6 May 2026
  • If the electrons and positrons had originated from persistent rho particles with a characteristic energy or mass, there would have been a bump in the curve.
    — Quanta Magazine, 30 July 2019
  • This may involve imaging studies, such as positron emission tomography (PET).
    — Doru Paul, Verywell Health, 19 Mar. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'positron.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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