By Derek Abma
A team of researchers, including several from Canada, is claiming to have achieved something only previously done in movies like Angels and Demons — the capture of antimatter.
Antimatter has an electronic makeup that’s exactly the opposite to matter. It does not exist naturally, but scientists believe when the universe was created, matter and antimatter existed in equal amounts.
“In the beginning, (antimatter) must have been there, but if you look at the universe now, including around us, you don’t see any antimatter,” said Makoto Fujiwara, an assistant physics professor at the University of Calgary and also a research scientist at Vancouver-based TRIUMF, Canada’s national laboratory for particle and nuclear physics.
The breakthrough announced Wednesday, outlined in a report published in the scientific journal Nature, is the result of more than five years of work at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) near Geneva, Switzerland. It is world’s largest particle-physics lab, and the only one capable of this kind of research.
The study involved 42 researchers, about one-third of whom were from Canada.
Mr. Fujiwara explained that hydrogen particles were moved at such a high speed in a container that antimatter was created from particle collisions. Hydrogen was used because its atomic structure is relatively simple, making it ideal to compare with antimatter particles that are created.
Researchers were able to capture about 40 atoms of antimatter for a fraction of a second, which is “an incredibly small amount,” said Rob Thompson, head of physics and astronomy at the University of Calgary, and a contributor to the study.
Mr. Thompson said the immediate benefits of this research are purely scientific.
“The direct application of our research in the short term is simply testing whether the fundamental theories upon which physics, and effectively applied science, are based are accurate or complete,” he said.
Mr. Fujiwara said advancing this type of study can help people better understand the origins of the universe.
Science-fiction tales have depicted antimatter as a fuel for spaceships. Both Mr. Fujiwara and Mr. Thompson said it’s premature to speculate if antimatter could in any way assist humans in space travel in real life.
They also said it is impractical to see it as a viable energy source at this point given the incredible amount of energy it takes to create a minuscule amount of antimatter.
In Angels and Demons, a central part of the story was a plan to use antimatter to blow up the Vatican. The concept of antimatter, for some, might seem threatening, given that antimatter and matter destroy each other upon contact.
However, Mr. Thompson said current research presents no conceivable threat since “our antimatter generation rate is so slow it would take thousands of years at this rate just to heat your morning coffee.”