Antimatter Mysteries 1 Antimatter Mysterie Rolf Landua Research physicist CERN
Feb 23, 2016
Antimatter Mysteries 1
Antimatter Mysteries
Rolf LanduaResearch physicist
CERN
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The story line of ...
Detective story about a secret society which ...
... steals 1 g of antimatter from a physicist at the ‘LHC’ in a place called “CERN” ...
... to blow up the Vatican, an old “enemy of science and CERN”.
Angels + Demons: The Book
What’s true ?What’s false ?
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Angels + Demons: The Movie
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Angels + Demons: The Cast @ CERN
Tom HanksAliyet Zurer Ron Howard
Rolf LanduaSergio BertolucciTara Shears
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That’s the budget of my new movie“Angels and Demons”
This much science will be in the“Angels and Demons” movie ...
This is what Dan Brown understandsabout antimatter ....
That’s how small I feel after seeing the huge machines ...
*Da Vinci Code, Apollo 13, Beautiful mind, ...
What did Ron Howard* say afterwards?
Before making ‘Angels and Demons’ , director Ron Howardcame to CERN to take a courseon “antimatter” and the “LHC”.
Angels + Demons: The Movie
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Antimatter Questions
Antimatter in our daily life ?
How is antimatter made
The mystery of antimatter
What is antimatterWhere is antimatter made
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1 What is antimatter ?
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1 What is antimatter ?
Matter is made of particlesElectronsProtons Neutrons Quarks}
Everything is made of matter(We, animals, plants, rocks)
The whole (visible) Universe can be explained with 4 building blocks:
Up-quark, down-quark Electron, neutrino
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Particles have specific masses and charges
1 What is antimatter ?
*GeV = Giga-Electron Volt = 1.8 · 10-27 kg
Name Electric Charge [e] Mass [GeV*]
Electron - 1 0.0005
Proton + 1 0.938
Neutron 0 0.941
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Anti-Particles have the same mass, but opposite charge
1 What is antimatter ?
Particles Anti-Particles
Name Electric Charge [e]
Mass [GeV*]
Electric Charge [e] Name
Electron - 1 0.0005 + 1 Positron
Proton + 1 0.938 - 1 Antiproton
Neutron 0 0.941 0 Antineutron
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Particles and antiparticles are always created in pairs ...
... and they can also annihilate each other
Energy to mass:
Mass to energy:
1 What is antimatter ?
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1 What is antimatter ?
A world made of antiparticles could exist -and it would look the same as our world.
Anti-Particles are as real as particles
What is ananti-particle?
Metaphores
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Careful with “antimatter E.T.” !
1 What is antimatter ?
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2 Where is antimatter made ?
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Antiparticles are produced using acceleratorsThe largest accelerator laboratory in the world is CERN in Geneva (CH)CERN = ‘Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire’
2 Where is antimatter made ?
27 km longProton Collider14, 000 GeV collision energy
10,055 physicists from 105 countries
(1618 physicists from US)
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LargeHadronCollider
The most powerful particle accelerator in the world
2 Where is antimatter made ?
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2 Where is antimatter made ?
New particles will be created that only existed shortly after the Big BangDark Matter ?The “Higgs” particle ?Mini-Black holes ?
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3 How is antimatter made ?
E = mc2
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Energy (e.g. photon)
Mass of electron and positron
e+
e-
E → mc2
3 How is antimatter made ?Energy is converted to mass
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3 How is antimatter made ?
New particles and antiparticles are created in collisions
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3 How is antimatter made ?Antiproton Decelerator at CERN
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4 The mystery of antimatter
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Size (x 100) of the visible Universe at the ‘Planck’ time
~ 1072 Joule
4 The mystery of antimatter
The Universe started 13 700 million years ago
Space and time came into existence. The space expanded, while the energy converted into mass(50 % matter, 50 % antimatter)
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4 The mystery of antimatter
All the antimatter disappeared less than 1 sec after the Big Bang
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4 The mystery of antimatterIt looks as if there was a giant ‘annihilation battle’ shortly after the Big Bang.
Most of the matter and antimatter disappearedand produced lots of light (still visible).
Only little matter was left = all stars, planets, us!
Why did ‘our’ matter survive?Why is there ‘something’ and not ‘nothing’?
Without this tiny asymmetry, we would not exist!That is why we study antimatter.
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5 Energy source? Weapon? Star Trek?
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Antimatter production requires energy
1,000,000,000 times more energy invested than released by annihilation
Energy conservation No
Dan Brown: Antimatter is the energy source of the future.
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Antimatter bombs ?
20 kt TNT = 8.4 · 1013 J0.5 g antimatter + 0.5 g matter
Dan Brown is right: only 0.5 g antimatter makes an ‘anti-atomic bomb’ BUT:
0.5 g antimatter = 4.5 · 1013 JTotal energy needed (efficiency =10-9 ) : 4.5 · 1022 JElectricity discount price CERN [1 kWh = 3.6 · 106 J = 0.1 €]
Price ~ 1,000,000,000,000,000 €
Delivery time ~ 1 000 000 000 years
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Add positron emitting isotopes (e.g. F-18) to glucose molecule and inject into blood stream
Positron Emission Tomography !
Glucose molecules accumulate (and decay) where energy is needed
Use detector to reconstruct place of positron annihilation
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Positron Emission TomographyAntimatter annihilations help to understand how the brain works
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What didRon Howardsay after hisvisit to CERN?
Back to Ron Howard ...
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Thank you for your attention.