Researchers at CERN have created and trapped antihydrogen in an attempt to study the underpinnings of the standard model of physics. Antihydrogen is made of antiparticles, specifically an antiproton and a positron, instead of the proton and an electron that are present in natural hydrogen. It has the same mass but opposite charge of its normal matter counterparts.

Antimatter has a bad reputation for being dangerous because it annihilates on contact with regular matter, releasing prodigious amounts of energy. However, the clever Ars reader will note that they have not been annihilated by the antimatter produced at CERN. The reality is that if you gathered all of the antimatter CERN has ever created, you wouldn't garner enough energy to power your laptop through reading this article. //

Antiparticles behave predictably in the presence of electric or magnetic fields and so can be contained in a special magnetic container called a Penning trap. Antihydrogen, which has no net electric charge, is much harder to contain. //

The ALPHA trap can confine antihydrogen in the ground state if it's kept at temperatures of less than half a Kelvin.

One challenge of this experiment is mixing the antiprotons and positrons at relatively low velocities such that antihydrogen can form efficiently. The efficiency is relative; The authors had to mix 10 million positrons with 700 million antiprotons in order to get get 38 certifiable antihydrogen events. //

It remains one of the largest unsolved problems in physics today as to why the Universe contains more regular matter than antimatter. Symmetry would suggest the Universe should have produced equal parts matter and antimatter, which would have annihilated—because we are here, we know this was not the case. Now that they have a bit of antihydrogen on hand, the researchers will test fundamental symmetries in nature (charge conjugation/parity/time reversal) by examining the excited states of antihydrogen. //

Boskone Ars Legatus Legionis
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UltimateLemon":316tohp9 said:
When can we start weaponizing it?
As soon as we have significant amounts, and apparently figure out how to stabilize it enough to mix with matter.

1kg antimatter mixing with 1kg matter yields something like 50 megatons. (Which means that a 3oz bottle of antiperspirant is about 4 megatons. Now TSA's really going to have an aneurysm. </rimshot>) //

Bicentennial Douche Ars Legatus Legionis
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matt_w_1":1ow1041j said:
how do you exam anti-matter? I assume throwing regular light at it would destroy it?

Duh, by using anti-light of course! The problem with that is that its too dark to see what you are doing. //

Hat Monster Ars Legatus Legionis
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Now then, all we need is antioxygen to mix with our antihydrogen and we can make antiwater which will start fires instead of extinguishing them! //

mr wonka Ars Praetorian
17y
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bedward":2u0orn9j said:

Boskone":2u0orn9j said:
1kg antimatter mixing with 1kg matter yields something like 50 megatons. (Which means that a 3oz bottle of antiperspirant is about 4 megatons. Now TSA's really going to have an aneurysm. </rimshot>)

It's not that big a deal; sniffer dogs would pick out the matching 3oz bottle of perspirant pretty easily.

Bedward needs to buy me a new keyboard.