CERN Can Now Produce Antihydrogen Atoms Eight Times Faster Than Before (phys.org) 41
fahrbot-bot shares a report from Phys.org: Physicists from Swansea University have played the leading role in a scientific breakthrough at CERN, developing an innovative technique that increases the antihydrogen trapping rate by a factor of ten. The advancement, achieved as part of the international Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA) collaboration, has been published in Nature Communications and could help answer one of the biggest questions in physics: Why is there such a large imbalance between matter and antimatter? According to the Big Bang theory, equal amounts were created at the beginning of the universe, so why is the world around us made almost entirely of matter?
Antihydrogen is the "mirror version" of hydrogen, made from an antiproton and a positron. Trapping and studying it helps scientists explore how antimatter behaves, and whether it follows the same rules as matter. Producing and trapping antihydrogen is an extremely complicated process. Previous methods took 24 hours to trap just 2,000 atoms, limiting the scope of experiments at ALPHA. The Swansea-led team has changed that. Using laser-cooled beryllium ions, the team has demonstrated that it is possible to cool positrons to less than 10 Kelvin (below -263C), significantly colder than the previous threshold of about 15 Kelvin. These cooler positrons dramatically boost the efficiency of antihydrogen production and trapping -- allowing a record 15,000 atoms to be trapped in less than seven hours.
Antihydrogen is the "mirror version" of hydrogen, made from an antiproton and a positron. Trapping and studying it helps scientists explore how antimatter behaves, and whether it follows the same rules as matter. Producing and trapping antihydrogen is an extremely complicated process. Previous methods took 24 hours to trap just 2,000 atoms, limiting the scope of experiments at ALPHA. The Swansea-led team has changed that. Using laser-cooled beryllium ions, the team has demonstrated that it is possible to cool positrons to less than 10 Kelvin (below -263C), significantly colder than the previous threshold of about 15 Kelvin. These cooler positrons dramatically boost the efficiency of antihydrogen production and trapping -- allowing a record 15,000 atoms to be trapped in less than seven hours.
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But I for one would at least expect a "black hole bomb"-spin-off from CERN, of which one might only need one to end all conflicts on this planet, including the conflicts among microbes.
Re:Cool (Score:4, Interesting)
Additionally, the nuclear energy content of U-235 has not to be put into the uranium. It sits there since the Uranium was created during that supernova, which created the space dust that formed our Solar system 4.6 billion years ago. For Antihydrogen, you have to actually provide any energy that is then confined in the antimatter. It is more or less an antimatter based battery which you have to charge first.
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> The US did not even had to mine the uranium for the bomb. They got it from Germany in April 1945,
Please stop posting misinformation.
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The US did not even had to mine the uranium for the bomb. They got it from Germany in April 1945,
Not completely correct. We had all the U-235 we needed for a bomb plus plutonium production by that date. We did seize and ship back the German supplies captured. But that was in part to keep them out of other parties (Soviet) hands.
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CERN is only smashing small ions together. At most, a black hole created would have the collective mass of these plus the energy needed to accelerate them into ion punishing speed. That's a might small black hole and not a threat to anyone. It would probably disappear quite quickly due to Hawking radiation. A brief google brings up:
https://angelsanddemons.web.ce... [web.cern.ch]
As they mention, some cosmic rays have more energy that what is created at CERN and if ion irritation black holes we
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Sorry, it will be a mostly boring, sometimes absolutely horrifying drone on drone on drone on drone war.
Boring while they fight, horrifying when the wall of drone A gets past the wall of drone B and find the juicy population behind it.
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We may have one before the earth no longer exists and the sun has turned into a white dwarf.
Effective antimatter bombs are purely science fiction. They are not only impossible to produce with technology of the foreseeable future, but I don't think they offer a strategic advantage over regular nukes, they are an awfully inefficient way of making a big boom. The only (still sci-fi) potential application for its extreme energy density at a macroscopic level seems to be about powering spaceships. At a microscop
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Or, we can continue to pump CO2 and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and *hope* it does no harm even though our physics says it will. Please explain your physics scientist credentials to us so that we may not merely assume you are just another nutjob who likes to float unsupported in a sea of ignorance.
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Sheesh.
Mirror version got swag? (Score:5, Funny)
"Antihydrogen is the "mirror version" of hydrogen"
Does it also wear a goatee?
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Along with a cool sash and agonizer.
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Moons in the bright. One eye squares.
This has made my day (Score:2)
This news has just made my day. Going to be super happy walking around, knowing that extra antimatter atoms were trapped.
The world is mine.
Laser Cooled? (Score:2)
How does a laser cool? How does it super-cool to below -263C?
Re:Laser Cooled? (Score:5, Informative)
Title very misleading (Score:1)
Calculating is hard, mmkay. (Score:5, Informative)
Summary:
"
increases the antihydrogen trapping rate by a factor of ten.
[...]
Previous methods took 24 hours to trap just 2,000 atoms
[...]
allowing a record 15,000 atoms to be trapped in less than seven hours."
2000 / 24 ~= 83 atoms per hour.
15,000 / 7 ~= 2,142 atoms per hour
2,142 / 83 ~= 26
26 != 8 or 10
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They use quantum math.
You wouldn't understand.
Trust me, Bro.
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Quantum AI math.
I don't remember this ever coming up (Score:1)
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OK, that was good. I'd have given you a +1 Funny if I hadn't used up all of my mod points yesterday. :)
Storage (Score:2)
How do you store thousands of atoms of anti-hydrogen?
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How do you store thousands of atoms of anti-hydrogen?
They didn't exactly say that they stored all those atoms, together, for some extended period of time. They said they were able to produce them and trap them at a much higher rate than before. 15000 atoms in 7 hours is about 1-2 atoms per second. For experimentation purposes, getting them to hang around for a few seconds before annihilation (i.e., "residence time") might be all they need, which equates to only a dozen atoms in the apparatus at any given moment.
Re:Storage - Alpha trap (Score:2)
Hydrogen is a neutral atom, which made it tricky. But turns out neutral atoms, and even neutral anti-atoms, can be trapped because they have a magnetic moment, which can interact with an external magnetic field.
https://cerncourier.com/a/keep... [cerncourier.com]
Finally (Score:2)
It's about time
Walmart (Score:2)
Yeah but I bet the price of antihydrogen molecules at Walmart won't drop by 1/8th. I bet they won't even go down by half.
How much total antimatter ... (Score:2)
has been created by humans?
milligrams?
Re:How much total antimatter ... (Score:4, Informative)
A lot less.
No such animal in the particle zoo. (Score:1)
There is no such thing as anti-hydrogen.
You have the anti-proton, with negative charge; and the positron, with neutral charge. The positron will not orbit the anti-proton. You cannot make molecules out of anti-matter.
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a positron has a charge of +e.
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Guess I should have perused wikipedia first. Another thing to unlearn.
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There is no such thing as anti-hydrogen. You have the anti-proton, with negative charge; and the positron, with neutral charge. The positron will not orbit the anti-proton. You cannot make molecules out of anti-matter.
Wikipedia says otherwise: Antihydrogen [wikipedia.org].
Antiprotons have a charge of -1e and positrons have a charge of +1e.
The path to Steins;Gate is open! (Score:2)
Trekkies (Score:2)
Now all we need is dilithium crystals!
You know how much antimatter is worth?!?! (Score:2)