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Laser helps unlock antimatter secrets
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Send message Joined: 15 Nov 14 Posts: 602 Credit: 24,371,321 RAC: 0 |
Scientists at Cern have found a new way to unlock the secrets of antimatter. In a major technological advance, physicists shone a laser on trapped anti-atoms to detect whether they behaved any differently to atoms. The work could shed light on one of the enduring mysteries about antimatter. Although the Big Bang produced matter and antimatter in equal amounts, today, the Universe overwhelmingly consists of matter - and current theories cannot explain why. Antimatter is incredibly difficult to produce and then capture and hold on to - not least because it gets annihilated on contact with ordinary matter. But by using a specially-designed magnetic trap, researchers working on Cern's Alpha experiment near Geneva, Switzerland, were able to study properties of anti-hydrogen - the antimatter form of hydrogen. http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-38366963 Perhaps someone can explain if this relates to LHCb, or something else we are doing (or potentially doing)? |
Send message Joined: 15 Jul 05 Posts: 242 Credit: 5,800,306 RAC: 0 |
The news item is from the Alpha experiment at CERN, one of the antimatter experiments on the site. Alpha gets beams from the Antiproton Decelerator that again gets protons from the PS accelerator. We do not currently offer specific simulations for this experiment on LHC@home, but the accelerator improvements done thanks to Sixtrack simulations lead to improved beams, that can benefit all LHC experiments and also potentially other ones that get beams from our accelerator complex. |
Send message Joined: 15 Nov 14 Posts: 602 Credit: 24,371,321 RAC: 0 |
Thanks, that places it in the proper context. |
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