Scientists Trapped an Antimatter Particle for Months to Study Its Secrets
Source: Wired ·
These elusive and reactive particles have been challenging to hold on to and even more challenging to study, but a new method paves the way for tests on the differences between matter and antimatter.
From the source
Antimatter is not known for being easy to get ahold of . That’s part of why these particles remain so cryptic. But recently, a team of physicists at Northwestern University managed to trap a single antimatter particle for months. Cooling it to temperatures near absolute zero, they could control its quantum states with great precision without even touching it. The experiment, published in Physical Review Letters , represents a breakthrough in our understanding of one of the great mysteries of physics. In theory, antimatter should be everywhere . Mathematics predicts that every particle of matter has an equivalent antiparticle, a fact that scientists have verified experimentally. The universe should therefore contain similar amounts of both, but almost everything we observe is made up of ordinary matter, and we still don’t know why . It is possible to produce antimatter particles in laboratories , but studying them is still incredibly difficult. When an antiparticle comes into contact…
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