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Anti-Matter

Introduction

       Ordinary  matter  has  negatively  charged  electrons circling  a 
positively  charged  nuclei.  Anti-matter   has positively charged
electrons - positrons - orbiting a nuclei with  a  negative charge - anti-
protons.  Only  anti-protons and  positrons  are able to be produced at 
this  time,  but scientists in Switzerland have begun a series of
experiments which  they believe will lead to the creation of  the  first
anti-matter element -- Anti-Hydrogen.

The Research

      Early  scientists often made two mistakes about  anti-matter.  Some
thought it had a negative mass, and would thus feel gravity as a push
rather than a pull.  If this were so, the  antiproton's  negative 
mass/energy  would  cancel  the proton's when they met and nothing would
remain; in reality, two   extremely  high-energy  gamma  photons  are 
produced. Today's  theories of the universe say that there is no  such
thing as a negative mass.

      The  second and more subtle mistake is the  idea  that anti-water 
would only annihilate with ordinary  water,  and could  safety be kept in
(say) an iron container.   This  is not  so:  it  is  the  subatomic 
particles  that  react  so destructively, and their arrangement makes no
difference.

      Scientists at CERN in Geneva are working on  a  device called  the
LEAR (low energy anti-proton ring) in an attempt to  slow the velocity of
the anti-protons to a billionth  of their  normal  speeds.  The slowing of
the anti-protons  and positrons, which normally travel at a velocity of
that  near the  speed of light, is neccesary so that they have a chance of
meeting and combining into anti-hydrogen.1

      The problems with research in the field of anti-matter is  that when
the anti-matter elements touch matter elements they annihilate each other. 
The total combined mass of both elements  are  released in a spectacular 
blast  of  energy. Electrons and positrons come together and vanish into 
high-energy  gamma  rays  (plus  a  certain  number  of  harmless
neutrinos, which pass through whole planets without effect). Hitting 
ordinary matter, 1 kg of anti-matter explodes  with the  force  of  up  to
43 million tons of TNT  -  as  though several thousand Hiroshima bombs were
detonated at once.

      So how can anti-matter be stored? Space seems the only place, both
for storage and for large-scale production.   On Earth,  gravity  will
sooner or later pull  any  anti-matter into  disastrous contact with matter.
 Anti-matter  has  the opposite effect of gravity on it, the anti-matter is
'pushed away'  by the gravitational force due to its opposite nature to
that of matter.  A way around the gravity problem appears at  CERN,  where
fast moving anti-protons can be held  in  a 'storage ring' around which
they constantly move - and  kept away  from  the  walls of the vacuum
chamber -  by  magnetic fields.  However, this only works for charged
particles,  it does not work for anti-neutrons, for example.

The Unanswerable Question

     Though anti-matter can be manufactured, slowly, natural anti-matter 
has  never been found.  In  theory,  we  should expect  equal amounts of
matter and anti-matter to be formed at  the  beginning of the universe -
perhaps  some  far  off galaxies  are  the made of anti-matter that 
somehow  became separated  from matter long ago.  A problem with the 
theory is  that cosmic rays that reach Earth from far-off parts are often 
made  up  of protons or even nuclei, never  of  anti-protons  or
antinuclei.  There may be no natural anti-matter anywhere.

      In  that case, what happened to it?  The most  obvious answer  is
that, as predicted by theory, all the matter  and anti-matter  underwent 
mutual  annihilation  in  the  first seconds  of creation; but why there do
we still have matter? It  seems unlikely that more matter than anti-matter 
should be  formed.   In  this scenario, the matter  would  have  to exceed
the anti-matter by one part in 1000 million.

      An alternative theory is produced by the physicist  M. Goldhaber  in 
1956, is that the universe divided  into  two parts  after its formation -
the universe that we  live  in, and  an  alternate universe of anti-matter 
that  cannot  be observed by us.

The Chemistry

      Though they have no charge, anti-neutrons differ  from neutrons in
having opposite 'spin' and 'baryon number'.  All heavy  particles,  like 
protons  or  neutrons,  are  called baryons.  A firm rule is that the total
baryon number cannot change, though this apparently fails inside black
holes.   A neutron  (baryon  number  +1) can become  a  proton  (baryon
number  +1)  and  an  electron (baryon  number  0  since  an electron  is
not a baryon but a light particle).  The  total electric charge stays at
zero and the total baryon number at +1.  But a proton cannot simply be
annihilated.

      A  proton and anti-proton (baryon number -1) can  join together  in 
an  annihilation  of  both.   The  two   heavy particles  meet in a flare
of energy and vanish, their  mass converted  to  high-energy  radiation 
wile  their  opposite charges  and  baryon  numbers  cancel  out.   We  can
 make antiprotons in the laboratory by turning this process round, using  a
particle accelerator to smash protons together  at such  enormous energies
that the energy of collision is more than  twice  the  mass/energy of a 
proton.   The  resulting reaction is written:

                p + p              p + p + p + p

       Two   protons  (p)  become  three  protons  plus   an antiproton(p);
the total baryon number before is:
                     1 + 1 = 2
     And after the collision it is:
                        1 + 1 + 1 - 1 =  2
     Still two.

     Anti-matter elements have the same properties as matter properties. 
For example, two atoms of anti-hydrogen and one atom of anti-oxygen would
become anti-water.

The Article

      The article chosen reflects on recent advancements  in anti-matter
research.  Scientists in Switzerland have  begun experimenting  with  a
LEAR device (low  energy  anti-proton ring)  which would slow the particle
velocity by a billionth of  its original velocity.  This is all done in an
effort to slow  the  velocity  to such a speed where  it  can  combine
chemically with positrons to form anti-hydrogen.

      The author of the article, whose name was not included on  the 
article,  failed to investigate  other  anti-matter research  laboratories
and their advancements.   The  author focused  on  the  CERN research
laboratory in  Geneva.  'The intriguing thing about our work is that it
flies in the face of all other current developments in particle physics' .2

      The  article  also  focused on the intrigue  into  the discovering
the anti-matter secret, but did not mention much on the destruction and
mayhem anti-matter would cause if not treated with the utmost care and
safety.  Discovering  anti-matter  could mean the end of the Earth as we
know  it,  one mistake  could mean the end of the world and  a  release  of
high-energy gamma rays that could wipe out the life on earth in mere
minutes.

      It  was  a quite interesting article, with  a  lot  of information 
that  could  affect  the  entire  world.    The article,   however,  did 
not  focus  on  the  benefits   or disadvantages  of  anti-matter  nor  did
it   mention   the practical  uses of anti-matter.  They are too  expensive
to use  for  powering  rocket  ships,  and  are  not  safe  for household 
or  industrial use, so have  no  meaning  to  the general public.  It is
merely a race to see who can make the first anti-matter element.

Conclusion

      As  research  continues into the field of  anti-matter there  might
be some very interesting and practical uses  of anti-matter in the society
of the future.  Until there is  a practical  use,  this is merely an
attempt  to  prove  which research  lab  will  be the first to manufacture 
the  anti-matter elements.

_______________________________ Swiss boldly poised to produce anti-matter
- John Eades, researcher at CERN

Swiss  boldly  poised  to produce anti-matter  -  John  Eades, researcher
at CERN