Antimatter

Though it sounds obvious, theorists and physicists could argue otherwise. A recent Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire (CERN) experiment concludes a reasonable answer to the two decades of assumption.

When exploring the depth of particle physics, one is bound to stumble across antimatter early on. So the question is what is antimatter? Simply, its matter consisted of antiparticles; counterparts of particles making up matter. And it falls down? I Guess Newton’s apple test stays true even for an apple made up of antimatter.

After The Big Bang, There should have been equal amounts of Matter and Antimatter in the universe. But a big open physics thought is why it seems that we only have matter left. Matter and Antimatter cannot coexist. If they meet each other, they annihilate. A truly violent reaction indeed. So it is hard to find it in the universe.

According to Dr. Jeffrey Hangst, experimental physicist at CERN, “Theory says matter and antimatter behave the same. We test it”

As antimatter isn’t available anywhere, scientists have to create it. Scientists do this by relating to the mass-energy equivalence principle.

As to how the experiment itself was conducted; scientists working on the ALPHA-g started by introducing anti-protons and negatively charged hydrogen ions into an electromagnetic device (Penning Trap). Their mass-to-change ratio was calculated by monitoring their frequency after they were seen to follow a repetitive path in the confinement system. Had the mass-to-charge ratio been different, variation in gravitational interactions would be seen.

Within the uncertainty of the experiment conducted, antimatter behaves just like normal matter. This showed how the experiment was a huge step in antimatter science- not limited to theory but experiments also while helping us uncover big questions in physics.

• https://home.cern/science/experiments/alpha
• https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03043-0
• https://www.universetoday.com/163439