ANTIMATTER TECHNOLOGY

CONTENTS
 Objectives
 What is antimatter?
 Antiparticles
 Annihilation
 Artificial production
 Applications
 OBJECTIVES
 To understand the basics of antimatter
technology.
 WHAT IS ANTIMATTER?

Antimatter is exactly what you might think it is

-- the opposite of normal matter, of which
the majority of our universe is made. These
anti-particles are, literally, mirror images of
normal matter. Each anti-particle has the
same mass as its corresponding particle, but
the electrical charges are reversed.
 ANTIPARTICLES
Positrons - Electrons with a positive instead of negative
charge. Discovered by Carl Anderson in 1932, positrons
were the first evidence that antimatter existed.
Anti-protons - Protons that have a negative instead of the
usual positive charge. In 1955, researchers at the Berkeley
Bevatron produced an antiproton.
Anti-atoms
Pairing together positrons and antiprotons, scientists at
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research,
created the first anti-atom. Nine anti-hydrogen atoms
were created, each lasting only 40 nanoseconds. As of
1998, CERN researchers were pushing the production of
anti-hydrogen atoms to 2,000 per hour.
NORMAL ATOM
ANTIATOM
HYDROGEN AND ANTIHYDROGEN
 ANNIHILATION
 
When antimatter comes into contact with normal
matter, these equal but opposite particles collide to
produce an explosion emitting pure radiation, which
travels out of the point of the explosion at the speed
of light. Both particles that created the explosion are
completely annihilated, leaving behind other
subatomic particles. The explosion that occurs when
antimatter and matter interact transfers the entire
mass of both objects into energy. Scientists believe
that this energy is more powerful than any that can
be generated by other propulsion methods.
 100% EFFICIENT PROCESS !
 Ideal energy density for chemical reactions is 1 x 107
(10^7) J/kg, for nuclear fission it is 8 x 1013 (10^13)
J/kg and for nuclear fusion it is 3 x 1014 (10^14)
J/kg, but for the matter-antimatter annihilation it is
9 x 1016 (10^16) J/kg. This is 1010 (10 billion) times
that of conventional chemical propellants. This
represents the highest energy release per unit mass
of any known reaction in physics. The reason for
this is that the annihilation is the complete
conversion of matter into energy , rather than just
the part conversion that occurs in fission and
fusion.
 EINSTEIN’S e=mc2
One of einstein’s greatest insight was to realize
that matter and energy are actually diferent
forms of the same thing . Matter can be
turned in to energy and energy in to matter .
Einstein’s formula tells us the amount of
energy a particular amount of matter will be
equivalent to if it is suddenly converted in to
energy . This is what happens in annihilation.
The amount of energy released can be
calculated using einstein’s formula e=mc2.
Where
E=energy released by annihilation
M=mass of the particles get annihilated
C=speed of light in vaccuum
HOW IT BECOMES A TECHNOLOGY!
Antimatter study becomes extremely important
as the energy released during annihilation of
matter and antimatter can be used to meet
our energy requirements . Scientists in
famous research facilities are working on to
make an effective way to use energy released
through annihilation for various purposes and
also a safe facility to store antimatter in
considerable quantities so that it can be
used.
 ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION
There is technology available to create
antimatter through the use of high-energy
particle colliders, also called "atom smashers."
Atom smashers, like CERN, are large tunnels
lined with powerful super magnets that circle
around to propel atoms at near-light speeds.
When an atom is sent through this accelerator,
it slams into a target, creating particles. Some
of these particles are antiparticles that are
separated out by the magnetic field.
ATOM SMASHER

These high-energy particle

accelerators only produce one or two
picograms of antiprotons each year. A
picogram is a trillionth of a gram. All of
the antiprotons produced at CERN in
one year would be enough to light a
100-watt electric light bulb for three
seconds.
Most expensive substance on earth!
The highly complex and sophisticated nature
of artificial production of antimatter has
made it the most expensive substance on
earth. In 1999,the estimated cost for 1 gram
of antimatter was about $62.5 trillion !!!
 NATURAL OCCURANCE
It is possible that particles outnumbered anti-
particles at the time of the Big Bang. As stated
above, the collision of particles and anti-particles
destroys both. And because there may have been
more particles in the universe to start with, those
are all that's left. There may be no naturally-
existing anti-particles in our universe today.
However, scientists discovered a possible deposit of
antimatter near the center of the galaxy in 1977. If
that does exist, it would mean that antimatter exists
naturally, and the need to make our own antimatter
would be eliminated.
 ANTIMATTER STORAGE
Antiparticles have either a positive or a
negative electrical charge, so they can
be stored in what we call a trap which
has the appropriate configuration of
electrical and magnetic fields to keep
them confined in a small place. Of
course, this has to be done in good
vacuum to avoid collisions with matter
particles. Antiatoms are electrically
neutral, but they have magnetic
properties that can be used to keep
them in "magnetic bottles".
 APPLICATION OF ANTIMATTER

PET Scan
 Particle physicists regularly use collisions between electrons and their

antiparticles, positrons, to investigate matter and fundamental forces at high

energies.
 When electron and positron meet, they annihilate, turning into energy which, at

high energies, can rematerialize as new particles and antiparticles. This is what
happens at machines such as the Large Electron Positron (LEP) collider at CERN.
 At low energies, however, the electron-positron annihilations can be put to

different uses, for example to reveal the workings of the brain in the technique
called Positron Emission Tomography (PET). In PET, the positrons come from
the decay of radioactive nuclei incorporated in a special fluid injected into the
patient. The positrons then annihilate with electrons in nearby atoms. As the
electron and positron are almost at rest when they annihilate, there is not
enough annihilation energy to make even the lightest particle and antiparticle
(the electron and the positron), so the energy emerges as two gamma rays,
which shoot off in opposite directions to conserve momentum.
 Antimatter as a propulsion system
if we are enable to develop a propulsion system which
uses antimatter as the source of energy in the future it
will surely render any other Newtonian rocket obsolete
overnight, the system has the highest predicted
efficiency, specific impulse and probably the highest
thrust to weight ratio. There does seem to be a serious
amount of disagreement over this last point, the general
feeling seems to be that the thrust to weight will at least
comparable to today's very powerful chemical rockets.
What this means is that only 100 milligrams (1/10 gram)
of antimatter would be needed to match the total
propulsive energy of the Space Shuttle (all those huge
tanks of fuel!).
 Antimatter propulsion system

There are actually two choices for propulsion.

Well electron-positron annihilation produces
high energy gamma rays which are impossible
to control, hence useless for propulsion, and
on top of this are potentially very dangerous.
Whereas the proton-antiproton annihilation
produces charged particles (mostly pions
moving at velocities close to that of light) that
can be directed with magnetic fields,
maximizing propellant mass
JOURNEY TIME OF AN ANTIMATTER ROCKET!

 
Estimates for travel times to Mars for an
advanced antimatter rocket are anywhere from
24 hours to 2 weeks, it is probable that it will
be somewhere in between. Compare this to the
space shuttle using its conventional chemical
propulsion when a trip to Mars would take
between 1 and 2 years !!!
 CONCLUSION
Antimatter indeed has the potential of
becoming the most efficient source of energy.
But as the artificial production of antimatter
has made it the most expensive substance on
earth , we still have to wait until we find it
naturally . In sometime in future we can hope
that we will be capable of travelling anywhere
inside our galaxy with the help of antimatter
spaceships.
QUESTIONS!!!!!
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