Pair production is a process in which a gamma ray of sufficient energy is converted into an electron and a positron. A fundamental law of mechanics, given by Newton, is that in any process total linear (as well as angular) momentum remains unchanged. In the pair-production process a third body is required for momentum conservation. When that body is a heavy nucleus, it takes very little recoil energy, and therefore the threshold is just twice the rest energy of the electron; i.e., twice its mass, m, times the square of the velocity of light, c², or 2mc². Pair production also can occur in the field of an atomic electron, to which considerable recoil energy is thereby imparted. The threshold for such a process is four times the rest energy of an electron, or 4mc². The total pair-production cross section is the sum of the two components, nuclear and electronic. These cross sections depend on the energy of the gamma ray and are usually calculated in an electron theory proposed by the British physicist P.A.M. Dirac through a method of approximation that is a simplification of a method (a “first approximation”) devised by the German physicist Max Born (i.e., a “first Born approximation”). The process is envisaged by Dirac as the transition of an electron from a negative to a positive energy state. Corrections are required for these cross sections at high energy, at high atomic number, and for atomic screening (the intrusion of the field of the electrons in an atom); these are normally made via numerical procedures. The fraction of residual energy, symbolized by the Greek letter alpha, unexpended in conversion of energy to mass, that appears in any one particle (e.g., the electron) is thus given by the kinetic energy of that electron E_e minus its rest energy mc² divided by the energy of the gamma ray hν (i.e., the product of Planck’s constant and the frequency of the gamma ray) minus twice the rest energy of the electron 2mc², or α = (E_e -mc²)/(hν - 2mc²). Because the same equation applies to each of the two electrons that are formed, it must be symmetric about the condition that each of the particles has half the residual energy, symbolized by the Greek letter alpha, α (in excess of that conveyed to the “third body”); i.e., that α = 0.5. Below an energy of about 10,000,000 eV for the gamma ray, the probability for pair production (i.e., the pair-production cross section) is almost independent of the atomic number of the material, and, up to about 100,000,000 eV of energy, it is also almost independent of the quantity α. Even at extremely high energies the probability that a certain fraction of the total available energy will appear in one particle is almost independent of the fraction as long as energy is comparably distributed between the two particles (excepting in cases in which almost all energy is dumped into one particle alone). Typical pair-production cross sections at 100 MeV (million electron volts) are approximately 10^-24 to 10^-22 square centimetre, increasing with atomic number. At high energies, approximately equal to or greater than 100 MeV, pair production is the dominant mechanism of radiation interaction with matter.

Clearly, as the photon energy increases, the dominant interaction mechanism shifts from photoelectric effect to Compton scattering to pair production. Rarely do photoelectric effect and pair production compete at a given energy. Compton scattering, however, at relatively low energy competes with the photoelectric effect and at high energy competes with pair production. Thus, in lead, interaction below 0.1 MeV is almost exclusively photoelectric; between 0.1 MeV and 2.5 MeV both photoelectric and Compton processes occur; and between 2.5 MeV and 100 MeV Compton scattering and pair production share the interaction. In the pair process the photon is annihilated, and an electron–positron pair is created. On the other hand, an electron or positron with energy approximately equal to or greater than 100 MeV loses its energy almost exclusively by production of high-energy bremsstrahlung (X rays produced by decelerating electric charges) as the result of interaction with the field of a nucleus. The cross section for bremsstrahlung production is nearly independent of energy at high energies, whereas at low energies the dominant energy-loss mechanism is by the creation of ionizations and excitations. A succession of bremsstrahlung and pair-production processes generates a cascade or shower in the absorber substance. This phenomenon can be triggered by an electron, a positron, or a photon, the triggering mechanism being unimportant as long as the starting energy is high. A photon generates a pair through pair production, and the charged particles generate photons through bremsstrahlung, and so on repeatedly as long as the energy is kept sufficiently high. With penetration into the substance, the shower increases in size at first, reaches a maximum, and then gradually decreases. Loss of particles by degradation to lower energies (in which the yield of bremsstrahlung is low), ionization loss, and production and absorption of low-energy photons eventually reduce the size of the cascade. The mathematical theory of cascades has been developed in great detail.

X rays and gamma rays

When light of sufficiently high frequency (or energy equal to hν), independent of its source, is absorbed in a molecular system, the excited molecular state so produced, or some excited state resultant from it, may either interact with other molecules or decompose to produce intermediate or ultimate products; i.e., chemical reactions ensue. Study of such processes is encompassed in the subject of photochemistry (see below Molecular activation).

Electromagnetic waves of energy greater than those usually described as ultraviolet light (see Figure 2) are included in the classes of X rays or gamma rays. X-ray and gamma-ray photons may be distinguished by definition on the basis of source. They are indistinguishable on the basis of effects when their energy is absorbed in matter.

The total effect of X-ray or gamma-ray irradiation of matter, in the almost immediate time interval, is the production of high-energy electrons of energy related to that of the incident ray. Such electrons behave like beta rays (electrons emitted from atomic nuclei) or electrons from a machine source of the same energy. They lose energy by excitation and ionization of atoms and molecules of the systems they traverse. The amount of energy such an electron gives to an atom or molecule tends to exceed that deposited in photochemical processes, and the variety of initial physical (and consequent chemical) effects is more numerous and diverse. The situation is further complicated by the fact that the secondary electrons produced in ionization processes in which the input of energy is high may themselves initiate other ionization and excitation processes that can yield further chemistry, the totality of which is embraced in the title of radiation chemistry (see below Molecular activation and Ionization and chemical change).