Antimatter

Atoms are much too small to see, but there are equations that describe how protons, neutrons and electrons behave inside each atom.

__**SEEING ANTIMATTER FOR THE FIRST TIME**__ Paul Dirac was studying these equations, how an electron behaves, when he found out that there was not one solution but two. The first solution described a normal electron, the second described another electron but a positive one.

Four years later, Carl Anderson was doing experiments with protons, neutrons and electrons using a cloud chamber. When it passes through the chamber, it leaves a spiral trail. The shape of the spiral is always the same as well as its direction. But in 1932, he saw a spiral trail that looked like an electron but it was spinning the other way, the wrong way. He'd found the proof that Paul Dirac's 'positive electron' existed. Carl Anderson had shown that antimatter was real. He invented the name 'positron' for the positive electron, and the name stuck.

Everything that we are familiar with is made of matter, not antimatter. But now we know that almost every matter particle has an antiparticle. Each antiparticle bahaves in a way that is similar to, but opposite to, its matter particle. It has the same mass, but the opposite charge. They are what we mean when we talk about antimatter.
 * __WHAT IS ANTIMATTER?__**



Antimatter is rare here on Earth, but it exists. We can make antimatter and we use it everyday, in engineering, in laboratories and in hospitals. One way is by radioactive decay.
 * __MAKING OUR OWN ANTIMATTER__**

Sodium-22 decays to Neon-22 by giving off sub-atomic particles and one of the sub-atomic particles it gives is a type of antimatter: a positron.
 * Radioactive Decay**

We need to be able to store and transport antimatter to be able to use it in medicine and engineering. But as soon as we create a single positron, it will innihilate with an electron in the matter around it. Only wayto stop this is to keep it away from matter. We can store positrons by using a positron trap: a vacuum tube with strong electric and magnetic field.They hold the positrons in the center of the tube so they don't come into contact with the side of the tube.
 * Keeping it safe**
 * Positron Trap**

-ARC Centre of Excellence for Antimatter

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