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If there are anti-stars in our universe, this does not mean that we can see them, because the anti-photon annihilates when it meets ordinary matter, that is, the laws of refraction and reflection of light will change, right?

Red bel
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1 Answers1

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Photons and anti-photons are the same particles.

Indeed two photons may annihilate each other to form, for example, an electron and a positron.

Other particles that coincide with their anti-particle are $Z^0$ bosons and gluons.

Returning to the question, if a star were made of antimatter you would not be able to tell just by looking at it, you would just see ordinary photons. But there are other ways to detect if a star is made of antimatter, such as looking at the neutrino flux. A main sequence star produces neutrinos as a byproduct of the nuclear burning. (See Wikipedia: Solar Neutrino)

The energy spectrum of those neutrinos is well known. If you could detect the flux coming from an antimatter star, you would see an antineutrino flux, instead.

The problem with this approach is that detecting neutrinos is extremely difficult, and there is little hope to be able to do it if the star is far away (e.g. in another galaxy).

On the other hand, if the star happens to explode as a supernova, the neutrino flux would be much greater and may be detected, allowing us to determine whether the star was made of anti-matter.

Prallax
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  • The star will also put out the usual solar wind too, but this will be composed of antiparticles to the usual solar winds, and this could annihilate with gas/dust from interstellar space which may also produce photons. – Triatticus Jul 28 '21 at 18:41