From: ndunlks@aol.com
Subject: IUFO: Antimatter Atoms Experiments Planned
Date: 14 Aug 2000 22:56:57 -0400
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Antimatter Atoms Experiments Planned

By NAOMI KOPPEL
.c The Associated Press

  
GENEVA (AP) - European scientists searching for answers to some of science's 
most basic questions announced plans Thursday to build atoms of antimatter 
and then ``cage'' them for use in experiments. 

The researchers at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, or CERN, 
said they plan to make atoms of antihydrogen. It would be the first time that 
antiatoms have been slowed down enough to be caught and studied, intensifying 
global competition between scientists trying to decode the mystery of 
antimatter. 

Physicists believe that antimatter is the mirror image of conventional matter 
in the universe. For every subatomic particle in the universe, there appears 
to be another identical in appearance and structure, but with its electric or 
magnetic properties reversed. 

Scientists have been puzzling for years over the disappearance of antimatter. 
The Big Bang should have created the same amount of matter and antimatter, 
and in principle the two should have wiped each other out. 

But somehow there was enough matter left over to create the universe, and 
antimatter only exists now in cosmic rays and particle accelerators. 

CERN, famed for its 16 3/4-mile particle accelerator, this time is using a 
small decelerator - 616 feet around - to create its ``antimatter factory.'' 

The CERN scientists plan to test the antihydrogen atoms to see if they behave 
in the same way as ordinary hydrogen. 

``We are looking at how the universe would look if it was made out of 
antimatter. Would there be the slightest difference between our universe and 
the universe of antiatoms?'' said Rolf Landua, spokesman for one of three 
projects at CERN looking at the issue. 

If antimatter differs from matter, even by one part in a hundred billion, 
that could explain why the world is made up of matter and why antimatter has 
disappeared, he added. 

The decelerator takes antiprotons - the opposite of protons- which have been 
created in the accelerator, groups them together and then slows them down to 
a tenth the speed of light. 

These can then be captured, either in electromagnetic fields or by inserting 
them into ordinary atoms, which is possible because antiprotons destroy 
normal protons but not other matter. 

Then, positrons - antielectrons emitted by a radioactive source - are added 
to the antiprotons. Just as one proton and one electron creates hydrogen, so 
one antiproton and one positron creates antihydrogen. 

The antihydrogen is then stored at very low temperatures and laser beams are 
shot at it to see if it behaves differently from hydrogen. Scientists want to 
know if antiatoms have a slightly different attraction to each other compared 
with ordinary atoms. 

``We hope to have the first antihydrogen atoms by the end of this year, and 
we will then have to construct a new type of apparatus in order to trap them. 
We aim to give a first analysis by the end of 2002,'' Landua said of the 
project, called ATHENA. 

``It could give us a clue to why our universe exists, but it isn't clear what 
that clue might be. We ask a question, nature gives us an answer, and if 
we're clever enough we understand the answer.'' 

The CERN project is one of three major international efforts trying to solve 
the mystery of the disappearance of antimatter. Two projects - BaBar at the 
Stanford Linear Accelerator Center in California and Belle, based at KEK, a 
Japanese national laboratory - presented their initial results last week. 

Those projects do not aim to build antiatoms, but instead to measure how 
antiparticles decay to see how this compares with the decay of normal 
particles. 

Physicists in the United States said the CERN effort to manufacture antiatoms 
is the next step to understanding the fundamental properties of an antimatter 
world. 

``To really understand whether this mirror world is out there, you have to 
test its ingredients and see if they behave the way we would expect them to 
behave,'' said Kurt Riesselmann, a physicist and spokesman for the Fermi 
National Accelerator Laboratory outside Chicago. 

When they collide, matter and antimatter release tremendous energy. Some 
scientists dream of harnessing this energy to send spacecraft to other solar 
systems orbiting distant stars. 

However, Riesselmann said antimatter propulsion and other practical 
applications of the mirror world is a long way off. The CERN experiments 
would trap small amounts of antimatter in magnetic fields for experiments, 
but that wouldn't be practical on a larger scale. 

``How would you store it?'' he said. ``You couldn't put it in a vessel or a 
container made of matter.'' 

On the Net: 

CERN, http://public.web.cern.ch/Public 

Antiproton decelerator, http://psdoc.web.cern.ch/PSdoc/acc/ad/index.html 

ATHENA project, http://athena.web.cern.ch/athena 

BaBar home page, http://www.slac.stanford.edu/BFROOT/index.html 

KEK, http://www.kek.jp 

AP-NY-08-10-00 1027EDT

Copyright 2000 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news 
report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed 
without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.  All active 
hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL. 


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