Antimatter

Antimatter

1. The existence of antimatter was first predicted by Paul Dirac in papers published from 1928 onwards.

   • Classical physics only allowed systems to have positive energy. But Dirac’s new theory of relativistic quantum mechanics allowed for a particle with negative energy solution, as a counterpart to the familiar positive-energy electron.

2. In 1933 Dirac went on to predict the existence of the antiproton, the counterpart to the proton. theres hardly any antimatter is seen in the observable universe, and why there should be vastly much more normal matter is one of the great unsolved problems in physics.

3. It was once thought that matter could neither be created nor destroyed, but we now know that energy and mass are interchangeable.

   • When a particle collides with its antiparticle the two annihilate each other, with their mass being entirely converted into energy
     • Einstein mass-energy relation E = mc2, where c is the velocity of light
       • Antimatter annihilations convert the entire mass of the particles involved into energy, A great deal of energy can be produced from little mass

4. Antiparticles can be created either naturally or artificially

   • Positrons are commonly produced by radioactivity – they’re a byproduct of β+ decay, in which a proton in the atomic nucleus transmutes into a neutron.
     • Other antiparticles result from high-energy collisions, in which the excess energy produces pairs of particles and their antimatter counterparts.

5. Antimatter has been touted as a possible future weapon or source of fuel, antimatter currently takes far too long to produce, and at too high an energy cost, for either weapons or fuel to be practicable

   • It’s also been suggested that antimatter can be used not only to diagnose cancer but also to treat it, using a technique similar to ion therapy

6. Although positrons are readily created in the collisions of cosmic rays, there is no evidence for the existence of large amounts of antimatter in the universe. The Milky Way Galaxy appears to consist entirely of matter, as there are no indications for regions where matter and antimatter meet and annihilate to produce characteristic gamma ray

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