Shedding light on antimatter
Dr Michael Doser, senior high energy physicist from CERN,offers a tantalising glimpse into the future of science with his talk on antimatter.
Dr Michael Doser, a senior high energy physicist from European Organization for Nuclear Research (Centre Européenne pour la Recherche Nucléaire CERN), gave staff and members of the public a tantalising glimpse into the future of science, with a talk on antimatter as part of the Distinguished Lecture Series at ANSTO on Wednesday 28 July 2010.
CERN, of course, is famous as the home of the world's largest physics experiments, involving the Large Hadron Collider.
Antimatter is a fundamental particle of regular matter with its electrical charge reversed. For example, the proton has an antimatter counterpart called the antiproton which has the same mass but an opposite charge. The electron's counterpart is called a positron, which is proving to be a very useful for medical imaging applications in Positron Emission Tomography (PET).
Dr Doser explained there is still a great deal to be learnt about antimatter.
"It is believed that an equal amount of matter and antimatter was created as a result of the Big Bang, however no-one has yet been able to explain where this primordial antimatter is...or if there is no primordial antimatter in the universe, we need to explain why."
Dr Doser spoke about the broad range of activities currently happening at CERN which are in addition to the work going on at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) including ISOLDE, ATLAS, CLIC and CLOUD:
- ISOLDE is part of the On-Line Isotope Mass Separator which is dedicated to producing radioactive nuclei for a number of applications covering nuclear, atomic, molecular and solid-state physics, but also biophysics and astrophysics.
- ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) is one of the six particle detector experiments. ATLAS is designed as a general-purpose detector where the proton beams produced by the Large Hadron Collider interact in the centre of the detector, a variety of different particles with a broad range of energies may be produced.
- CLIC (Compact Linear Collider) is a study for a future electron-positron collider that would allow physicists to explore a new energy region beyond the capabilities of today's particle accelerators including that of the LHC.
- CLOUD (Cosmics Leaving OUtdoor Droplets) is an experiment that uses a cloud chamber to study the possible link between galactic cosmic rays and cloud formation.
Dr Doser gave details on some of the experiments being carried out at CERN, where the first ever anti-hydrogen particle was created, but he cautioned that there was still much to discover.
"There has never been an experiment looking at antimatter gravity," he said.
He also outlined the properties of antiprotons and their application in medical equipment. Early experiments on animal cells have demonstrated that antiprotons have the potential to kill cancerous cells, while causing less damage to healthy cells.
Dr Doser's presentation demonstrated how a landmark research infrastructure creates immense scientific and educational potential: big questions, frontier technologies and a welcoming international community that covers many disciplines.
Posted: 30 July 2010