A fundamental property of particles and antiparticles (such as electrons and positrons, respectively) is their ability to annihilate one another. A similar behaviour is predicted for magnetic solitons¹—localized spin textures that can be distinguished by their topological index Q. Theoretically, magnetic topological solitons with opposite values of Q, such as skyrmions² and their antiparticles (namely, antiskyrmions), are expected to be able to continuously merge and annihilate³. However, experimental verification of such particle–antiparticle pair production and annihilation processes has been lacking. Here we report the creation and annihilation of skyrmion–antiskyrmion pairs in an exceptionally thin film of the cubic chiral magnet of B20-type FeGe observed using transmission electron microscopy. Our observations are highly reproducible and are fully consistent with micromagnetic simulations. Our findings provide a new platform for the fundamental studies of particles and antiparticles based on magnetic solids and open new perspectives for practical applications of thin films of isotropic chiral magnets.

粒子和反粒子（分别如电子和正电子）的一个基本特性是它们相互湮灭的能力。预测磁孤子¹的类似行为 -可以通过其拓扑指数Q区分的局部自旋纹理。理论上，具有相反Q值的磁性拓扑孤子，例如斯格明子²及其反粒子（即反斯格明子），预计能够连续合并和湮灭³. 然而，一直缺乏对这种粒子-反粒子对产生和湮灭过程的实验验证。在这里，我们报告了使用透射电子显微镜观察到的 B20 型 FeGe 立方手性磁体的极薄薄膜中skyrmion-antiskyrmion 对的产生和湮灭。我们的观察结果具有高度可重复性，并且与微磁模拟完全一致。我们的研究结果为基于磁性固体的粒子和反粒子的基础研究提供了一个新平台，并为各向同性手性磁体薄膜的实际应用开辟了新的前景。