Question on Antimatter

How is it made ? If it is destroyed when it comes into contact with matter, how can we possibly make it or store it ?

Antimatter is made through various ways, mostly in particle colliders.

Its not stored currently, and often annihilates with matter in much less than 1 second after being created... you could in theory store it in a electric field however. Use a field to keep ionized antimatter from comming in contact with normal matter.

At least one company is researching anti-hydrogen containment. The symbol for anti-hydrogen would be an H with a bar above it... hence the name Hbar technologies. Check out the website at www.hbartech.com...

Also, some propulsion technologies based on antihydrogen are proposed. interesting...

[edit on 9-6-2005 by TheeStateMachine]

Yep, as Quest said, the way we currently make anti-matter is with particle accelerators, however some anti-matter is stored, using electro magnetic fields, I beleive the largest amount that is stored is 5,000 particles of anti-hydrogen, but even that amount isnot enough to power things, such as a city for a day, or a spacecraft.

Though three grams of anti-matter could power america for a day, unfortunately we have never made anywhere near that amount.

You can control charged anti-matter with powerful fields so that they don't destroy the container. Otherwise, they'll automatically anihilate with their respective anti-particle.

The process for creating it is unbelievably inefficient, although it does have many uses, especially in the medical profession.

They can create anti-matter at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland. They have a huge particle-accelerator that stretches into France!
Heres some info: CERN

Originally posted by iori_komei
Though three grams of anti-matter could power america for a day, unfortunately we have never made anywhere near that amount.

Considering it for energy production is pretty silly as the energy that comes out is far less than the energy that went in to create the antimatter.

Considering it for energy production is pretty silly as the energy that comes out is far less than the energy that went in to create the antimatter.

At our current technological level, yes it is, but once we can produce it in vast quantities using less energy than it makes , than it will be a good source for power.


Its like with Fusion reactors, they are possible, we have made one, but they produce less energy than the amount used to run them.

[edit on 6/18/2005 by iori_komei]

That's because we don't have to make the Hydrogen for the fusion reactor. We need to make antimatter, and the best return we're gonna get is equivalent to what we get out.

It's useful for "storing" energy to be used. Medical applications, and possibly as an energy source if we control it.

How long before we see antimatter on ebay selling for billions of dollars.

Humans can make it, although the mother universe makes far more of it than we do

check this out

highenergyparticles.net...

i have a question too, i know how there are positrons and anti protons and stuff, but how is there an antiparticle to a neutron?

I have an on-subject question. I know that Matter and Antimatter react in a way called "total annihilation". I'm gonna start theorizing here. This is where fact ends and speculation comes into play. If everything is gone, energy is left. So is this basically a turbocharged nuclear fission reaction? Or is it more of a nuclear fusion reaction in which the electrons/positrons and protons/negatrons completely neutralize each other, creating (in essence) neutrons, releasing all their energy?

Originally posted by midgetstar
i have a question too, i know how there are positrons and anti protons and stuff, but how is there an antiparticle to a neutron?

Antineutron, consists of two anti down quarks (+1/3) and one anti up quark (-2/3).

[edit on 25-6-2005 by Simon666]

here's a quote;

Earlier this century, scientists predicted and then made microscopic amounts of antimatter. They realised that matter and antimatter together results in annihilation in a flash of energy.

If antimatter had not vanished from our Universe, then it is possible that all the cosmos would now consist of nothing but radiation - with no matter at all.

More Fermilab experiments and calculations are planned to see if the new observations can be understood. In the meantime, if you want to know why we are here, it is all about the difference between left and right - just look in a mirror


scientist can only make microscopic amounts of anti-matter,apparently there is hardly none left in the cosmos.

Dear Friends,

Matter and Antimatter both exist in our universe but are out of proportion. There is more matter than antimatter, for a reason we don't really understand, and that's why we do exist.

Imagine that you have an electron, which is a negatively charged particle, an anti-particle of the electron, called anti-electron or positron mostly, is one that has the same mass with the electron but opposite in charge. Therefore we are talking about the same particles with opposite charges, as simple as that.

If there was the same amount of matter and antimatter in the universe then we wouldn't have been able to exist at all, since both matter-antimatter would have been anihilated without leaving any chance for mass to be created because when they annihilate they produce radiation, sometimes called gamma radiation, which is just the emission of phtons (discrete packets of energy).

I think that some astrophysicists have already discovered a cloud of antimatter somewhere in the universe, that's absolutely reasonable because there is antimatter as well as matter but not in the same proportions.

Finally if you want to create antimatter particles then you need to create matter particles, and therefore is not an easy process.

Regards, TN1

Wow, excellent explanation. Total Annihilation reaction... okay. So when these two react, Antimatter and matter... What precisely causes them to absolutely destroy each other? I know its the balancing of charges, but shouldn't that create neutral particles made of quarks that make a neutral charge?

Originally posted by TN1
I think that some astrophysicists have already discovered a cloud of antimatter somewhere in the universe, that's absolutely reasonable because there is antimatter as well as matter but not in the same proportions.

That's absolutely not reasonable since anti matter behaves according to accepted theory exactly the same as regular matter. Since the spectral lines are hence the same, there is no way of discerning matter from anti matter except perhaps if you'd note gamma radiation of characteristic frequencies (like that of positron-electron annihilation) coming from the edge of a cloud and when all other possible explanations are exhausted, you could explain it as the meating of anti matter with matter at the edge of the cloud .