Antimatter

1
Antimatter

• Jake Deschaine
• Email jsdescha_at_mtu.edu

2
Antimatter As Science Fiction

• Propulsion
• Faster than light?
• Unlimited energy?
• Weaponry
• Extremely powerful?

Left A Photon Torpedo Right The Enterprise-Ds
Warp Core
3
Antimatter Overview

• What is antimatter?
• Antimatter as theory
• Antimatter discovered
• Antimatter created

• Where is the antimatter?
• Antimatter research
• Practical uses of antimatter
• Bibliography

4
What Is Antimatter?

• For all elementary particles known, there exists
  an antiparticle.
• These antiparticles are identical to the
  particle, but opposite in charge.
• Collectively these antiparticles are known as
  antimatter.

5
Antimatter As Theory
Left Paul Dirac circa 1930. Bottom Diracs
manipulation of the Schrödinger Wave Equation

• In the 1928 physicist Paul Dirac presented the
  theory that antimatter should exist. By using the
  Schrödinger wave equations, he found that
  electrons could have both negative and positive
  energies, the positron was born.

He was not taken seriously until
6
Antimatter Discovered

• In 1932 Carl Anderson, who was doing research on
  cosmic rays using a cloud chamber saw "something
  positively charged, and with the same mass as an
  electron."
• After more experiments he determined that this
  something was the anti-electron predicted by
  Dirac.
• In 1936 Anderson won the noble prize for his
  experimental discovery.

Top Anderson and his cloud chamber Left The
path of the positron
For several years, cosmic rays remained the only
source of antimatter
7
Antimatter Created

• Antimatter was eventually created by using
  particle accelerators to collide particles
  together.
• When particles collide with significant energy
  they produce equal amounts of matter and
  antimatter, further proving Diracs theory about
  the symmetry of matter/antimatter.

Above A large collider at the European
Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)
8
Where Is the Antimatter?

• As theorized, matter and antimatter are identical
  and should have annihilated each other at the
  beginning of the universe.
• Since this did not in fact happen, there must be
  a difference between them.
• CP Violation accounts for some of this.
• CPT refers to Charge-Parity-Time, meaning if you
  take a system, replace all particles with
  antiparticles, reverse its coordinate system, and
  run it backwards in time, you shouldnt be able
  to tell the difference.

9
Antimatter Research

• One of the major areas of research involves
  determining the difference between
  matter/antimatter.
• The ATHENA experiment attempts to use
  antihydrogen atoms in determining these
  differences.
• Other experiments study the annihilation that
  occurs when antimatter/matter particles interact.

10
Practical Uses of Antimatter

• Energy source?
• Useable if enough can be found, not if we have to
  create all the antimatter.
• Weaponry?
• Antimatter weaponry would be powerful, and leave
  no fallout, but would also require significant
  amounts of antimatter.

11
Bibliography

• "Antiparticle." Wikipedia. lthttp//en.wikipedia.or
  g/wiki/Antiparticlesgt.
• Barnett, R. M. "What is Antimatter?" Scientific
  American. Stanford Linear Accelerator Center.
  lthttp//www.sciam.com/askexpert_question.cfm?artic
  leID000848AB-9450-1CD1-B4A8809EC588EEDFcatID3t
  opicID13gt.
• Charlton, Mike. "Probing the Antiworld." Physics
  World (2005). ltwww.physicsweb.orggt.
• "Frequently Asked Questions." Centre for
  Antimatter-Matter Studies. lthttp//www.positron.ed
  u.au/faq.htmlgt.
• Soffer, Abner. "What's the Matter with
  Antimatter?" Colorado State U. lthttp//conferences
  .fnal.gov/lp2003/forthepublic/matter/gt.
• "Why is Antihydrogen Interesting?" ATHENA. CERN.
  lthttp//athena.web.cern.ch/athena/gt.