Cosmic Log - Antimatter atoms caught at last
Some of the scientists at CERN are using the Large Hadron Collider to sort out thatantimatter mystery, but Hangst and others work at a different facility, known as theAntimatter Decelerator. ALPHA is one of the scientific collaborations that has been mixing antiparticles — positrons and antiprotons — to try to create whole atoms of antihydrogen.
It’s not easy, because of that mutual-annihilation issue. Hangst said the first trick was to combine the particles in a super-cold vacuum setting —- less than 0.5 Kelvin, or -458.8 degrees Fahrenheit. That way, the particles don’t instantly jump away and fizzle out. The second trick is to build a magnetic trap to help contain the particles so that they don’t instantly decay. And there’s a third trick: designing a system capable of verifying that the atoms actually exist.
“You must have a trap, and you must be cold, and you must be able to detect that you’ve done this,” Hangst said.
The ALPHA team’s detection system looked for the particles given off when the anti-atoms eventually decayed.
Emphasis mine. I admire particle physics as a whole but the quirky sense of humor within the field brings be back.
(Source: cosmiclog.msnbc.com)
