What Happens If You Drop 0.125 Grams of Antimatter?

TL;DR

Dropping 0.125 grams of antimatter into ordinary matter would cause annihilation, converting nearly 100% of their combined mass into energy through E equals mc squared. CERN produces 20 million antiprotons per minute by accelerating protons to 99.93% of light speed and striking an iridium target, but safely storing antimatter requires preventing all contact with matter. Read on to understand annihilation, CERN’s traps, and the mystery of why matter survived.

Transcript

• There is a prequel to the "Da Vinci Code". It's called "Angels and Demons". And in it, terrorists steal one eighth of a gram of antimatter from CERN to try to blow up the Vatican. Because the thing is, when antimatter and matter meet, they annihilate, turning nearly 100% of their combined mass into pure energy. This is via E equals mc squared. It... Read More

Key Insights

• Antimatter annihilation is the conversion of a particle and its antiparticle into energy when they meet. Their opposite charges cancel, their field excitations disappear, and nearly all their combined mass transfers into another quantum field, such as the photon field, according to E equals mc squared.
• Antiparticles are mirror excitations of the same quantum fields that produce ordinary particles. They have the same mass and spin as their corresponding particles but opposite charge, while some particles mentioned in the transcript, including photons and Higgs bosons, serve as their own antiparticles.
• Dirac's equation predicted an electron counterpart after producing both positive-energy and negative-energy solutions for an electron at rest. Dirac interpreted the puzzling negative solution as a new particle with the electron's mass and opposite charge, and the positron was observed in nature one year later.
• CERN produces antiprotons by accelerating protons to 99.93% of the speed of light and striking an iridium target. The facility produces 20 million antiprotons per minute, providing particles for experiments designed to create, trap, transport, and precisely study antimatter.
• Antimatter storage requires preventing antiatoms from touching ordinary matter. CERN's first antihydrogen atoms in 1995 survived for only 40 billionths of a second, but later trapping advances allowed researchers to confine antimatter, conduct precise tests, and load a trap onto a truck for transportation.
• The matter-antimatter asymmetry is one of physics' largest unsolved mysteries. The early universe was expected to contain equal quantities of particles and antiparticles, yet complete annihilation would have left only radiation, which conflicts with the matter-filled universe that is observed today.
• Astronomical searches ruled out the proposed division of the universe into large matter and antimatter regions. Boundaries between such regions should produce substantial annihilation and very high-energy light, but surveys did not find the expected hotspots, supporting a genuine cosmic excess of matter.
• The surviving matter represents roughly one particle for every billion matter particles and billion antimatter particles present in the early universe. The estimated 10 to the 89 remnant photons and 10 to the 80 ordinary matter particles reveal how closely annihilation approached completion.

Questions & Answers

Q: What happens if you drop 0.125 grams of antimatter?

If 0.125 grams, or one eighth of a gram, of antimatter contacts ordinary matter, the two annihilate. Nearly 100% of their combined mass is converted into energy according to E equals mc squared.

Q: How does antimatter annihilation release energy?

When a particle overlaps with its antiparticle, their opposite charges cancel, their excitations disappear, and the original quantum field returns to its ground state. Their mass is converted into energy and transferred into another quantum field, such as the photon field.

Q: Why is antimatter annihilation so energetic?

Annihilation can turn nearly 100% of the combined mass of matter and antimatter into energy. The transcript describes this through E equals mc squared and calls it the most violent process physics allows.

Q: How does CERN produce antiprotons?

CERN accelerates protons to 99.93% of the speed of light and smashes them into an iridium target. The process produces 20 million antiprotons every minute.

Q: How can CERN store antimatter without it annihilating?

Antimatter must be trapped without touching the ordinary matter around it, because contact causes annihilation. After working on the problem for more than 30 years, CERN researchers trapped antimatter in a box and even loaded a portable trap onto a truck for transportation.

Q: When did CERN first create antihydrogen atoms?

CERN made its first antihydrogen atoms in 1995. Those antiatoms survived for only 40 billionths of a second before annihilating, which was too short for useful study.

Q: What is the difference between matter and antimatter particles?

An antiparticle has the same mass and spin as its corresponding ordinary particle but carries the opposite charge. Most particles have an antiparticle twin, while photons and Higgs bosons are described as their own antiparticles.

Q: Why is there more matter than antimatter in the universe?

The early universe should have produced particles and antiparticles in equal amounts, and almost all of them should have annihilated as the universe cooled. Instead, roughly one extra matter particle survived for every billion matter-antimatter pairs, and the origin of that imbalance remains an unsolved mystery.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Antimatter consists of counterpart particles with the same mass and spin as ordinary particles but opposite charge. When a particle overlaps with its antiparticle, their excitations disappear and their mass becomes energy in the photon field. This annihilation converts nearly all the combined mass into energy through E equals mc squared.

• CERN creates antiprotons by accelerating protons to 99.93% of light speed and smashing them into an iridium target, producing 20 million antiprotons per minute. Its researchers create antiatoms and develop traps that prevent antimatter from touching ordinary matter, allowing increasingly precise measurements and even transportation in a portable trap.

• The early universe should have produced equal amounts of matter and antimatter, which would have annihilated into radiation. Observations instead imply that roughly one matter particle survived for every billion matter-antimatter pairs. All ordinary structures in the observable universe descend from that tiny imbalance, whose physical origin remains an unsolved mystery.