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June 5, 2011
Antimatter atoms of antihydrogen have been trapped for more than 16 minutes during an experiment at the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, which should facilitate the study of antimatter, according a study published Sunday.
"We can trap atoms of antihydrogen for 1,000 seconds," time "long enough to begin to study them," said Jeffrey Hangst (University of Aarhus, Denmark) on behalf of participants in the ALPHA experiment at CERN.
Antimatter captured for the first time at CERN in the ALPHA experiment
Matter "mirror" of what we know, antimatter is difficult to observe because every atom of antimatter annihilates matter upon contact, producing an enormous amount of energy. A hydrogen atom consists of a proton with a positive electrical charge and a negative electron. An atom of antihydrogen consists of a negative proton (antiproton) and a positive electron (positron).
Matter and antimatter were created in equal quantities in the moments after the Big Bang, but there remains little that matter. Where is the antimatter? This question torments physicists who want to analyze the properties of antimatter created in particle accelerators.
First atoms of antihydrogen were produced at CERN in 1995. But they had annihilated almost instantly on contact with matter. The ALPHA team at CERN had recently made a step forward in developing a new type of magnetic trap: 38 atoms of antihydrogen were stayed for 0.17 seconds.
Image above: Anti-hydrogen atoms annihilating not captured on the inner surface of the trap ALPHA at CERN 10 November 2010. © CERN.
The term of confinement has been increased to 1000 seconds, according to the study published Sunday online by the journal Nature Physics. And 309 atoms of antihydrogen have been trapped long enough for us to "begin to study their properties in detail," said CERN in a statement.
Antimatter is it subject to anti-gravity? This is one of the questions posed by physicists. Discover such a "repulsive gravity" could provide an answer to another riddle, that of the unknown energy that favors the accelerating expansion of the universe. Gravity, tends to push the galaxies approach each other.
Anti-mater graphic detection
When undergoing certain transformations, this material mirror she meets the same "symmetry" of physical laws that normal matter? According to the CPT symmetry (electric charge, parity, time), "a particle which progresses over time in our universe would be indistinguishable from an antiparticle backward in time in a mirror universe", says Alpha Team at CERN.
"Any indication of symmetry breaking would require CPT to seriously rethink our understanding of nature," says Hangst, whose team is preparing to probe anti-atoms to compare their properties with those of matter.
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Images, Text, Credit: CERN / AFP / Translation: Orbiter.ch.
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