Antimatter atom trapped for first time, say scientists

BBC News ^ | 11/17/10 | Jason Palmer

[NormsRevenge]

Antimatter atoms have been trapped for the first time, scientists say.

Researchers at Cern, home of the Large Hadron Collider, have held 38 antihydrogen atoms in place, each for a fraction of a second.

Antihydrogen has been produced before but it was instantly destroyed when it encountered normal matter.

The team, reporting in Nature, says the ability to study such antimatter atoms will allow previously impossible tests of fundamental tenets of physics.

The current "standard model" of physics holds that each particle - protons, electrons, neutrons and a zoo of more exotic particles - has its mirror image antiparticle.

The antiparticle of the electron, for example, is the positron, and is used in an imaging technique of growing popularity known as positron emission tomography.

However, one of the great mysteries in physics is why our world is made up overwhelmingly of matter, rather than antimatter; the laws of physics make no distinction between the two and equal amounts should have been created at the Universe's birth.

Slowing anti-atoms

Producing antimatter particles like positrons and antiprotons has become commonplace in the laboratory, but assembling the particles into antimatter atoms is far more tricky.

That was first accomplished by two groups in 2002. But handling the "antihydrogen" - bound atoms made up of an antiproton and a positron - is trickier still because it must not come into contact with anything else.

While trapping of charged normal atoms can be done with electric or magnetic fields, trapping antihydrogen atoms in this "hands-off" way requires a very particular type of field.

"Atoms are neutral - they have no net charge - but they have a little magnetic character," explained Jeff Hangst of Aarhus University in Denmark, one of the collaborators on the Alpha antihydrogen trapping project.

[TheThirdRuffian]

Given that a kilogram of anti-matter could be used to make a 50 megaton bomb (or lots of little bombs), I have some uses.

Storage is one step

Economical production is another.

Apparently, they have confirmed that there are millions of tons of this stuff trapped in the magnetic belt around Earth.

[Dead Corpse]

I think another corollary is that things are only IMPOSSIBLE until someone figures out how to do it.

[hinckley buzzard]

There is some chance that the CERN experiments could lead to the end of the world, and perhaps the end of the universe. It is a infinitesimal chance, but it is a chance.

Great. I'll take antimatter and the points for a hundred.

[darth]

Reminds me of the Californium Bomb project. One ton TNT equivalent out of a grenade launcher.

Seriously, it may take 100 years, but antimatter will make great starship fuel. It can also be used to catalyze hydrogen fusion for spaceships IIRC.

[hinckley buzzard]

Its a good thing those Europeans have wasted billions of dollars so they could trap 38 sub-atomic particles for a fraction of a second

"If I could catch time in a bottle, there's nothing that I'd rather do..."

[Drew68]

Its a good thing those Europeans have wasted billions of dollars so they could trap 38 sub-atomic particles for a fraction of a second. We wouldn’t want them to waste that money trying to improve the economies of Portugal, Spain, or Ireland, or anything like that.

Projects like this used to happen in America back when this country aspired towards greatness. I'd rather see scientific endeavors such as this Large Hadron Collider funded with my tax dollars as opposed to entitlement programs for the stupid and lazy and free drugs for old people.

[r9etb]

So these guys can be trapped in a magnetic field, just like normal matter.

Which is pretty cool, but it raises an interesting question about magnetic fields .... what are they, exactly, that they can interact with both matter and anti-matter without destroying it?

[MindBender26]

Sorry, was not a math major. :)

[MindBender26]

My first wife, diarrhea and Obama are all proof of that statement!

[dhs12345]

One in a million? Yikes.

What are the chances that it will be one in a million? One in a billion?

[terycarl]

GreenPeace, The ACLU and CAIR immediately called for a release of the atom and halt to any further trapping of poor innocent antimatter atoms.

a large grant should be considered for the person who discovers the anti-matter greenpeace, ACLU, and Cair...imagine if it was introduced into the world....POOF!

[dhs12345]

Or maybe we create the possibility by simply “observing” it.

[varyouga]

Without research of space and non-Newtonian physics, humanity(possibly the only intelligent life in the universe) will meet certain doom on this ever-changing planet.

Unfortunately, I fear that saving us from our own stupidity, greed and laziness will take more effort than crossing the galaxy.

[MCH]

Which is pretty cool, but it raises an interesting question about magnetic fields .... what are they, exactly, that they can interact with both matter and anti-matter without destroying it?

So, are you postulating the existence of an anti-magnetic field :)?

[dhs12345]

Anything with a charge, can be trapped in a magnetic field.

If I remember correctly, a magnetic field is produced by a (another) charge in motion.

[Defiant]

"Doesn't Matter".

[UCANSEE2]

You are both wrong.

It’s 50/50. It will either happen, or it won’t.

[Chode]

i think they are called Brazillions...

[Talisker]

Sorry, was not a math major. :)

Me either, that's why I'm so confident with numbers. : )

[Bratch]