The truth about angels, demons and antimatter

In the film adapted from the novel 'Angels and Demons', an antimatter explosion threatens to raze the Vatican shrine, but in the real world, physicists are not bothered by the plot. this.

The story is about the hero Robert Langdon in 'Da Vinci Code' trying to retrieve to retrieve a antimatter pipe that was stolen from a facility of CERN (European Particle Physics Laboratory) in Switzerland Sy. Researchers at CERN have for the first time figured out how to create and trap antimatter particles, which inspired the author Dan Brown to write the novel 'Angels and Demons'. .

A physicist from CERN was not sad when the agency was publicly disclosed through novel pages; on the contrary, he felt satisfied.

'I always say what Dan Brown makes for the Roman Catholic Church in' Da Vinci Code 'he is now doing for me and my research with' Angel and Devil ',' Gerald Gabrielse, Harvard University physicist, head of a research team at CERN, said.

Antimatter is real, but it still represents an invisible presence in the universe - particles smaller than atoms and opposite to ordinary matter.When a particle and an antiparticle meet, they will destroy each other and create a large energy source.

This strange but fascinating fact has caused many authors to write sci-fi stories about the antimatter motives that serve the future civilization, as described in the science-fiction film. Star Trek - Star Trek.

'Angels and Demons' described the dream of using this unprecedented energy source along with the tragedy that occurred when a large amount of antimatter destroyed itself when it met matter. In this fictional story, just ¼ gram of antimatter will risk releasing 5,000 tons of TNT and destroying everything within a half-mile radius.

But in fact, antimatter can produce so much energy is still what physicists dream of.

'If you destroy all the antimatter that was created in the history of the earth at the same time, you don't even get enough energy to boil water to make a cup of tea,' Gabrielse told LiveScience reporter. .

Antimatter represents a rare object in the universe, dominated by matter - now this is a fact that scientists are still trying to understand why. They only learned that to create antimatter requires great efforts, such as using particle accelerators like CERN to accelerate particles to near the speed of light.

In nature, there are also rare cases of antimatter particles produced when a cosmic ray hits the earth above the atmosphere. Of course, in research, the collection of human antimatter particles is much more feasible than the set of naturally generated particles.

Physicist Vittoria Vetra (Ayelet Zurer) and iconologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) seek traps against antimatter in the 2009 movie "Angels and Demons" (Photo: Sony Pictures)

Physicists have slowed and kept a small fraction of the antiproton particles produced. They used antimatter traps, similar to those described in 'Angels and Demons', with magnetic fields keeping the antimatter particles in a vacuum, away from matter.

'You need something like a barrel without a wall around,' Gabrielse noted. His previous project (TRAP) has succeeded in creating and retaining antiproton particles for months.

Now physicists face a bigger challenge than how to keep neutral antipartic atoms. The recent international project (ATRAP) has created a trapping of hydrogen, and is now continuing with the second trap.

'We are currently trying to trap the neutral anti-hydrogen atoms that we have created, but no one has proven that I have succeeded with this,' Gabrielse said.

Such neutral neutron atoms can form into blocks according to theory, while trapped antiproton particles try to push apart.Whether a mass of antimatter destroys and creates energy as a small-class nuclear weapon that doesn't push itself away - this is still an open question.

A part of 'Angels and Demons' may be true to reality, which is a part unrelated to antimatter. This science fiction novel described a retina-type scanner for CERN's laboratory, and in fact CERN actually applied this eyeball-type protection technology after the book was released. , Gabrielse explained.

So the story of 'Angels and Demons' is not entirely unrealistic, but the secret truth about antimatter is still something that no fictional fiction can explain successfully.

'Why does the universe contain more matter particles than non-matter particles? We don't know the real answer, ' Gabrielse said.