Researchers are preparing to do one of science’s rarest ways. They plan to take the container across Europe in a lorry.
Antimatter is the most expensive material on Earth – estimated to cost several trillion dollars to make a gram – because it can only be made. particle physics laboratories such as the CERN research center near Geneva
We can also be an architect. If antimatter hits normal matter, both are annihilated, releasing a powerful burst of electromagnetic radiation. Only by accurately arranging powerful electric fields and proximity in special devices can antimatter be safely stored.
“That moves around the most difficult, although we are already close to making the first journey”, Prof. said Stefan Ulmer, a scientist at Cern. “Antimatter has so much to do with us. that is why we are doing this.
The antimatter movement will be a scientific first, although it has a poetic forerunner. The Dan Brown thriller Angels & Demons – was made in a film starring Tom Hanks in 2009 — terrorists steal a basket from Cern and try to destroy the Vatican with it.
The prospect of a similar explosion occurring in real life is remote, scientists insist – the amounts of antimatter delivered will be insufficient for an explosion of any recognizable nature.
Scientists want to study particles that they believe may hold the solution to a fundamental mystery. “We believe the big bang will produce the same amount of matter and antimatter,” Ulmer said. “These would cancel each other out, leaving a world of electromagnetic radiation and not much else.”
That the cosmos appears to be filled with galaxies, stars, planets, and material beings, this notion must be mistaken. It is a fundamental asymmetry that favors matter and has prevented the universe from becoming a seething, empty void.
For this reason, physicists want to study the differences between the particles that make up matter and antimatter. These might explain why they came to dominate the universe.
As Cern scientist Barbara Maria Latacz said nature: “We seek to understand why we are.”
Matter is made up of subatomic particles such as protons and electrons, while antimatter is made up of antiprotons and positrons (also known as antielectrons). The main source of the latter type of particles at CERN is based on a device called the Antiproton Decelerator, where antiprotons are generated, collected and studied.
The goal is to precisely measure the properties of antiprotons and compare them with protons. Known as the Base test, it was able to reveal small hidden differences that would explain why the material thrived at the expense of antistomach.
Background magnetic fields near the device limit this work, and scientists want to transfer samples to other labs. “By moving them to a new location, we can make the measurements 100 times more accurate and get a deeper understanding of the antiprotons,” said Ulmer.
To achieve this goal, Cern scientists have built transportable devices containing superconducting magnets, cryogenic cooling systems and vacuum chambers where antiprotons can be trapped, avoiding contact with normal matter, and transported in seven-ton lorries.
Initially, the antiprotons will be carried inside Cern. During the following year, the containment will be further developed in a dedicated lab at the Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf.
“In the long term, we want to bring it to any lab in Europe,” said Christian Smorra, head of cargo transport. In this way, scientists hope to find out why antimatter has almost disappeared from the universe. “This can be a game, Ulmer said.