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Positronium Chemistry: Origin, Development, and Historical Roots

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  • Helge Kragh
Helge Kragh
Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Jagtvej 128, Copenhagen, Denmark
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.36253/Substantia-3540

Published 2025-07-01

Keywords

  • positronium,
  • muonium,
  • exotic atoms,
  • antimatter,
  • hydrogen isotopes

How to Cite

Kragh, H. (2025). Positronium Chemistry: Origin, Development, and Historical Roots. Substantia. https://doi.org/10.36253/Substantia-3540

Copyright (c) 2025 Helge Kragh

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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Abstract

Positronium science has for more than half a century been an important research area located somewhere between physics and chemistry. Based upon the study of positrons and the electron-positron atom called positronium, the field was originally part of atomic physics but soon became embraced also by the chemists. In this article I present a first preliminary study of the origin and early history of positronium science with an emphasis on its chemical aspects. It includes a so-called prehistory going back a long time before the discovery of the positron, at a time when the ether was sometimes conceived as consisting of pairs of oppositely charged electrons. Apart from positronium, the intertwined history of muonium – where the electrons are replaced by the heavier muons – is also described. More generally, the paper discusses from a historical perspective how various kinds of exotic atoms, antiatoms and superheavy atoms included, have become parts of the chemical sciences.

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