Cern scientists trap antimatter
Summary: Researchers have produced and captured anti-hydrogen atoms using strong magnetic fields in the Alpha experiment at Cern
Physicists at Cern have taken a major step forward in antimatter research, according to the European science organisation.
For the first time, scientists have managed to produce antimatter atoms and trap them using magnetic fields, the world's premier particle physics laboratory announced in a statement on Wednesday.
Learning how to trap the antimatter atoms, which were anti-hydrogen, will allow scientists from Cern's Alpha experiment to study the antiparticles, Cern told ZDNet UK on Wednesday. "This is a momentous step in the study of antimatter," Alpha experiment spokesman Jeffrey Hangst said.
While thousands of anti-hydrogen atoms were created, 38 were captured. The anti-hydrogen atoms were trapped for 0.17 seconds — long enough to study the antimatter, Hangst said — but can theoretically be held for much longer.
Normally, when antimatter particles are produced, they are annihilated when they come into contact with matter, Hangst explained. Anti-hydrogen is produced in a vacuum, but still has a short life expectancy.
The study of antimatter is further hampered as magnetic fields, which can be used to prevent matter and antimatter colliding, have little effect on neutrally charged antimatter. Anti-hydrogen atoms consist of an antiproton, which has a negative charge, and a positron, which is positively charged, Hangst said. When these particles combine, they have a neutral charge.
Nevertheless, there is still a weak interaction between anti-hydrogen and a strong magnetic field, if the antimatter is cold enough. Hangst said that anti-hydrogen needs to be 0.5 degrees above absolute zero to be trapped.
The next stage of the experiment is to work out for how long antimatter atoms can be captured, and how many can be produced. After that, the Alpha experiment will be taken apart and rebuilt so that scientists can shine lasers into the antimatter to see if it absorbs light. The Standard Model of physics, a group of hypotheses about how physics works, predicts that matter and antimatter should behave in the same way. The anti-hydrogen should therefore absorb the same wavelengths of light as hydrogen atoms, Hangst said.
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Talkback
A couple of things. First off, dealing with a molecule, especially one with the molar mass and polar nature of water and its phase changes, etc. in an accelerator/collider is much more complex than you think.
Second, it is safest and smartest to go through the extra energy to deal in smaller units when we are exploring quantum states. Assuming, the paranoids were right and black holes were formed in creation of antimatter, doing it on a scale of elemental hydrogen leaves a lot less room for catastrophe. H2O on the other hand is going to be much harder to control should things go wrong.
For decades we have been defining elements in fractions of a second. Most of the experimentally determined elements are the result of such experiments. And to call water, nature's rest state seems vague to me. If that was the case, would there ever be free hydrogen or oxygen? It would all be bound in H2O, wouldn't it?
Lastly, the reason these things are cooled is all elements become para magnetic when supercooled. Adding heat to the system is scary and pointless since it would reduce the magnetism of the water itself. Sailors use compasses to find their way because water is not magnetic. It is polar, but if you know MO theory, you would know that it is not very magnetic, so you would be adding a ton of risk and complication in order to do what you are suggesting.
-- To all, please do not read a wiki article and proclaim yourself to be a chemist nor a physicist. You look silly doing it.