This achievement, which was 20 years in the making, could open up an entirely new era of research into antimatter.
Posted on 12/19/2016 4:31:37 PM PST by BenLurkin
Ever since the existence of antimatter was proposed in the early 20th century, scientists have sought to understand how relates to normal matter, and why there is an apparent imbalance between the two in the Universe. To do this, particle physics research in the past few decades has focused on the anti-particle of the most elementary and abundant atom in the Universe – the antihydrogen particle.
Until recently, this has been very difficult, as scientists have been able to produce antihydrogen, but unable to study it for long before it annihilated. But according to recent a study that was published in Nature, a team using the ALPHA experiment was able to obtain the first spectral information on antihydrogen. This achievement, which was 20 years in the making, could open up an entirely new era of research into antimatter.
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Beginning in 1996, this research was conducted using the AnTiHydrogEN Apparatus (ATHENA) experiment, a part of the CERN Antiproton Decelerator facility. This experiment was responsible for capturing antiprotons and positrons, then cooling them to the point where they can combine to form anithydrogen. Since 2005, this task has become the responsibility of ATHENA’s successor, the ALPHA experiment.
Using updated instruments, ALPHA captures atoms of neutral antihydrogen and holds them for a longer period before they inevitably annihilate During this time, research teams conduct spectrographic analysis using ALPHA’s ultraviolet laser to see if the atoms obey the same laws as hydrogen atoms.
(Excerpt) Read more at universetoday.com ...
Not a good night to read up on this, but thank you for posting it. I approach it at hobbyist level, but theoretical physics fascinates me.
Wow.
This is easy: Random fluctuations after the Big Bang (”Let there be light”) resulted in matter or anti-matter being slightly more prevalent.
The “winner” is the one we call “matter.”
Also, when matter and anti-matter anhilate you get energy, which is equivalent via E=Mc2 to matter.
Surprised they are still struggling with this...
So if excited hydrogen atoms emit light at four wavelengths in the visible, does excited anti-hydrogen emit dark?
If that propagates through all anti-elements, could there be entire anti-galaxies out there?
And, we wouldn't recognize one -- until we stumbled into it -- and were annihilated?
Wouldn’t they have to use an Anti-Ultraviolet Laser?
and just what is the speed of dark, anyways?
I loathe it. I must say as an animal lover what they put Schrodinger's cat through turned me off to it completely.
/s
What's the MATTER with you?
All this doesn't really MATTER, does it?
matter, fatter, splatter, blatter (horn), patter, latter, batter (pancake), clatter, datter (JFK accent for "data"), platter...
There MUST be a poem here somewhere.
I noticed A Glaring grammatical mistake in the very first sentence. They really should fix that.
I always though that anti-matter was what was between a Libtards ears.
Yes, and if we make a copy of you out of antimatter, it would look just like you, except it would have a mustache and goatee and would be evil.
ROTFLMAO! You sir are a twisted individual!
He'd be a man of integrity in any universe.
I’m wondering if the Cheshire Cat was a sort of prototype.
No. As photons are neutral, the spectrum of anti-hydrogen should be completely indistinguishable from that of hydrogen, certainly as to wavelength. Polarization is another question.
Well, photons are identical to antiphotons, so light is identical to “antilight”.
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