For a long time, many physicists have tried to trap antimatter atoms. Physicists want to be able to trap relatively sizeable amounts of antimatter, about a few atoms, despite the possibility of large explosions if the antimatter comes into contact with normal atoms. However, the danger of antimatter is only one of the problems, containing and creating them is the real challenge. About 80 years ago, antimatter was predicted to exist by physicist Paul Dirac. It was also experimentally verified a long time ago, and is used in PET scans, or Positron Emission Tomography. However, positrons have a net electrical charge while antimatter atoms do not. Because of this, anti-atoms are difficult to control. In 2002, a team of scientists at CERN made a few thousands of antihydrogen atoms. However, the atoms disappeared almost instantly, destroying themselves with contact with nearby matter. Because of this, the atoms were not examined, and scientists are still trying to capture these atoms.
Although antihydrogen atoms do not have a net electric charge, they have something called magnetic moment, and researchers have created a superconducting magnetic trap that would hold the pieces of antimatter by interacting with the magnetic moments. In order for this to work, the scientists must make antihydrogen atoms with a low enough kinetic energy, or else the atoms would leave the trap and be destroyed by normal matter. For the atoms to reach low enough kinetic energy would mean producing low temperatures, about 0.5K (-273 degrees Celsius). Putting all of these conditions together, however, is incredibly difficult, and the machine was only able to produce 38 antihydrogen atoms that lasted one fifth of a second. Now other teams of physicists are working to produce, hold, and control antimatter, and hopefully some of the groups will be successful.
This to seemed like an interesting article, since these scientists are trying to make the opposite of matter. For that to happen, the scientists had to make temperatures close to absolute zero, which seems basically impossible. However, if the scientists could study the anti-atoms, this could lead to them finding out more on the creation, and existence of our universe. One thing that worries me about this project is that antimatter can be a devastating substance. In the article, it was mentioned that the anti-atoms were able to release more energy than nuclear explosions, and the fact that the physicists are trying to make a lot of the stuff seems almost too risky to try to do. Hopefully the scientists will be able to find a safe way to contain the antimatter, and also be able to study it.
Citations
Larson, Chris. "Antihydrogen: Catch and Do Not Release." Science Online. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 4 Mar. 2011.
