experimental physics
june 2015
source
phys.org/news
15
they confined antihydrogen for up to 30 minutes in traps. Eventually, however, the antihydrogen annihilates, such as by impacting the walls of the experimental apparatus or interacting with background gases. Antimatter has a tendency to burst in an explosion of energy if it comes into contact with regular matter. Thusly, it is pretty much impossible to find it in nature, and difficult to produce in a regular lab.
The few ways to produce antihydrogen involve colliding or scattering particles off one another. In a new study, physicists focused on the reaction in which an antiproton is scattered off positronium, which is a bound state consisting of a positron and a regular electron. In a sense, positronium can be thought of as a hydrogen atom in which the proton is replaced by a positron (positively-charged electron). So far, the antiproton-positronium scattering reaction has been studied on its ground state.
HOWEVER, in a new study, the scientists theoretically showed that antiproton collisions with positronium in an excited state instead of the ground state can enhance antihydrogen production significantly, particularly at the lower energies. Kadyrov, Associate Professor at Curtin University, said "It turns out antihydrogen formation increases by several orders of magnitude for positronium in excited states as compared to the ground state due to unexpected low-energy behavior revealed in our calculations."
The scientists hope that this method will offer a practical way to create cold antihydrogen, which could then be used to test the fundamental properties of antimatter. "Scientists from the ALPHA, ATRAP, AEgIS and GBAR Collaborations at CERN are working on producing and trapping antihydrogen in sufficient quantities for experiments on spectroscopic and gravitational properties of antihydrogen," Kadyrov said. "We believe that the efficient mechanism for antihydrogen formation that our research has unveiled could be used to facilitate these investigations."
I hope this leaves your knowledge of the world rather revolutionized. We have been born into a world where opposites are balanced (whether we may see it or not). Though we may claim to know everything, we may actually be blind to a whole new area of anti-life. Who knows. Your other half may be studying for his/her anti-physics test.
What’s an antihydrogen’s favorite family member?
Anti (Auntie) lol
image source
awesomestories.com