antimatter: it matters by alex elizabeth heart

Image: NASA

Antimatter: It Mattersby Alex Elizabeth Heart

Alex Elizabeth Heart

What is Antimatter?

Image: Professor Gerald Gabrielse

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Gabrielse

The Big Bang

• 15 million years ago the universe was born• First moment of the big bang extreme heat

enforced homogeneity of energy• Less than 1 nanosecond old energy coalesced

symmetrically into equal amounts of matter and antimatter

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Symmetry Problem

Alex Elizabeth Heart Image: Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man

• Equal amounts of matter and antimatter came into existence

• Matter and antimatter annihilate each other completely

• We cease to exist

Image: Virginia Tech

Searching for Asymmetry• B mesons are especially heavy particles• By studying their rate of decay, science hopes to unveil asymmetry• This could help explain why matter exists

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Leptogenesis

• Leptogenesis explains the asymmetry of matter and antimatter

• “…very heavy neutrinos morphed into a shower of antineutrinos. The antineutrinos pulled the lepton side of the see-saw down; the amount of ordinary matter had no choice but to increase.”

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Image: NASA

After the Big Bang

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Image: Education Closet

Key Discoveries

Each is essential to account for where our knowledge of antimatter is at today

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Image: Cover Junction

Albert Einstein

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Image: United States Public Domain

Paul Dirac

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Image: Caltech Archives

Carl Anderson

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Image: Isaac Asimov

Science Fiction Influence

• Seetee Stock • I, Robot• Star Trek

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Image: Star Trek

Star Trek

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Image: NASA

Antimatter as a Fuel?

“If an idea does not sound absurd there is no hope for it” –Albert Einstein

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Radiation Therapy

High energy radiation to shrink tumors and kill cancer cells

Alex Elizabeth Heart Image: SoftPedia

Antiprotons vs. Other Particles

Alex Elizabeth Heart

• Photons: damage healthy cells going in and out of the body

• Protons: damage healthy cells going in but not out of the body

• Antiprotons: same as protons with more concentrated energy deposition and more accurate

Energy Deposition

Alex Elizabeth Heart Image: Lewis, R. A., Smith, G. A., & Howe, S. D.

Accuracy

Alex Elizabeth Heart Image: ECAA.org

Image cc

Antimatter is Expensive

• NASA Estimates that it costs $62.5 trillion to produce 1 gram of antimatter

Alex Elizabeth Heart

Let’s Improve

• More facilities need to focus on making antiprotons and better methods need to be identified.

• According to Kalogeropoulos & Muratore "Antiprotons are the best particles for [cancer] therapy" (1989)

Alex Elizabeth Heart