Pair production

Pair production is a process where a high-energy photon (a particle of light) transforms into two particles: an electron and a positron (the electron's antimatter counterpart). This occurs when the photon passes close to a nucleus, which provides the necessary energy and momentum balance. The photon must have at least 1.022 MeV (million-electron volts) of energy—twice the electron's rest energy—for this to happen. This process illustrates the connection between light and matter, demonstrating how energy can convert into particles under the right conditions, consistent with Einstein’s mass-energy equivalence principle (E=mc²).