Mirror of the Universe -- Antimatters

At the beginning of our universe, there was a big bang...
At that point, particles are created from virtually nothing...
What are particles made out of?
This question troubled scientists for centuries...
Scientists investigating the structure of subatomic particles are just like cavemen investigating the structure of stone...
To investigate what are stones made up of, cavemen bring two stones together, colliding them...
To investigate what subatomic particles are made up of, scientist do the same thing......


Have you ever heard of the LHC?

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/05/14/science/15cern.xlarge1.jpg

If you are an avid reader, or if you had watched the movie 'Angels and Demons', no doubt, you would know what it is...

LHC, or Large Hadron Collider is  a particle accelerator located underground in Geneva, Switzerland.
This gigantic machine/research facility

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1c/CMS_Higgs-event.jpg
Higgs Bosons created in a particle collision

In the LHC, experiments are constantly carried out to investigate the nature of matter.

http://www.ift.uam.es/en/system/files/lhc_hall_1.jpg

 Superconducting magnets in the collider accelerates particles such as protons to bear 99.9% the speed of light in opposite directions

When these particles collide, scientist could then obtain information about the structure of the subatomic particles.

In November 2008,  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced that they had successfully produced antimatter in the form of positrons (the opposite of electron)




So, what exactly are these anti-matters?


Fundamental physical particles are defined by their mass, charge and magnetic moment (interaction with magnetic field).


Matter as learnt by any secondary-school student, has mass, occupies volume and are made up of particles.

http://spm-chemistry.wikispaces.com/file/view/states_of_matter.gif/32349521/states_of_matter.gif
The different state of matter

These particles such as atoms or ions are made up of even smaller particles such as electron, proton and neutron.

http://www.biocrawler.com/w/images/d/d8/Atom_diagram.png
Subatomic particles of an atom

Different elements has different structures made up from subatomic particles.
For example, hydrogen is made up of one proton and one electron, where the electron orbits around a nucleus made up of one proton
Helium,on the other hand, is made up of two proton, two electrons and two neutrons where the two electrons orbits around a nucleus made up of two protons and two neutron held together by nuclear strong force.


For antimatters, the same rules apply, but with anti-particles. For instance, an anti-hydrogen is made up of a positron (positively charged electron) orbiting around an antiproton. While an anti-helium is made up of two positrons orbiting around a nucleus made up of two antiprotons and two antineutrons.

http://www.futuretimeline.net/22ndcentury/images/antimatter-power-plant.jpg
Antimatter-matter annihilation reaction

When an antiparticle meets its counterpart (the particle), they destroy each other completely in a process known as annihilation. This process converts the masses of the antiparticle and particle into energy and releases high energy gamma ray photons.

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The total amount of energy release in this reaction is governed by the formula, E=MC^2 where E is the total amount of energy released, M is the combined mass of the matter and anti-matter, and C^2 is the speed of light squared.


Since annihilation process is a 100% efficient reaction, the energy released is stronger than nuclear reactions.


In nuclear reaction, the total mass loss is a fraction of the total mass, for example, when uranium undergoes radioactive decay, it is transmuted into plutonium that has a lower mass. The loss mass in this reaction appears as high energy gamma rays released, alpha and beta emission.


In antimatter-matter reaction, the total mass loss is equal to the total mass annihilated which, in turn, is the total amount of mass in the whole reaction.


To understand more about the LHC and Antimatter, listen to the song below:





As a conclusion, it is save to assume that Antimatter may, one day, replace all other sources of energy as the cleanest source of energy.