jueves, 16 de junio de 2011

Scientists perfect trap antimatter

The new development will allow more time to study for the atoms of antimatter to understand what happened in the first moments of life of the Universe
 
ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE The experiment ALPHA succeeded in trapping atoms for 16 minutes, long enough to begin to study their properties in detail (Foto: AP )
  AP | El Universal 21:48


Sunday June 5, 2011
A group of nuclear scientists announced it has developed a technique to retain for more than 15 minutes of antimatter atoms, which are difficult to isolate and whose existence lasts only a split second.
With this achievement, experts from the European Organization for Nuclear Research have more time to study atoms in order to understand what happened in the first moments of life in the universe.
The technique is a major advance on previous attempts to isolate antihydrogen, which like all antimatter disappeared almost instantly without scientists have time to examine it.
"We went from two-tenths to one thousand seconds," said U.S. scientist Jeffrey Hangst spokesman ALPHA research team working in the laboratory of particle physics in the world, known by its acronym CERN and is located in the border between Switzerland and France.

The specialist team improved the efficiency of antimatter trap antihydrogen atoms cooled to just under half a degree above absolute zero. His investigations were released online in the journal Nature Physics.
Hangst said that extend the life of antihydrogen means scientists will have enough time to stabilize and to examine and compare the hydrogen atoms.
The team of experts plans to shoot lasers from microwave and antihydrogen atoms this year.

Phillip F. Schewe, spokesman for the Institute of Physics, United States, described the improvement of the trap antimatter as a large feat of engineering physics.
"However, in a sense, the achievement represents the continuity of progress, not the discovery of something new," said Schewe, who was not involved in the investigation. "We need to capture a larger number of atoms (antihydrogen)."

Hangst said the team has managed to capture about 300 atoms of antihydrogen.
The more you capture, the easier it is to do experiments with antihydrogen. "This is a breakthrough that shows what we can do and where we go," he said.
The understanding of antihydrogen will help solve one of the biggest mysteries of physics.
Theorists claim that both matter and antimatter were created in equal amounts during the Big Bang, but the antimatter has disappeared since the natural universe while the matter is full of stars, planets and galaxies.
According to the approach Hangst: "Half the world is gone and we do not know why."

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