Inspired by the three "century mysteries" such as the Tunguska Big Bang, the scientific community began to come to the conclusion that the three big explosions in 1986 may be antimatter. 1997, scientists announced the discovery of the "silver fountain of antimatter", which made scientists' enthusiasm for finding antimatter rise again. In fact, antimatter is no different from ordinary matter, except that the particles that make up antimatter and the well-known ordinary matter have opposite charges.
As early as 1928, Dirac, a famous physicist, made a bold prediction through mathematical calculation: in the universe, there is a new kind of particle, which has all the same properties as electrons except positive charges, that is, particles with positive charges and equal mass and life span as electrons. 1932, American scientist Anderson verified Dirac's prediction. He found this particle in the analysis and study of cosmic rays. Its mass and charge are the same as those of electrons, but it is positively charged. It is an antiparticle of electrons, called positrons, and electrons are negatively charged.
1955, antiprotons and antineutrons were found in the proton accelerator in Beckley, USA. In 1960s, almost all antiparticles in elementary particles were discovered by physicists. An antimatter world is gradually "excavated" by scientists such as archaeology. 1996 65438+ 10. In October, scientists at CERN used the particle collider to collide high-speed xenon atoms with antiprotons, and nine antiprotons were obtained. Although these antihydrogen atoms dispersed into antiprotons and antielectrons after a third of a second, it shows that human beings have been able to make antimatter. The nucleus of antimatter is a "negative nucleus" composed of antiprotons and antineutrons, surrounded by positrons. Matter composed of antiparticles is called antimatter. Many physicists believe that antiparticles are obtained through the "mirror inversion" of the internal structure of the original particles.
For example, when you look in the mirror, if you really exist in the mirror and appear in front of you, then you in the mirror are called "anti-you". Many antimatter researchers also speculate that at the moment of creation, matter and antimatter separated, forming two universes, one called "universe" and the other called "anti-universe", which were mutually exclusive and moved away from each other at great speed. Antimatter is the opposite of general matter, which is the main part of the universe. Once antimatter touches the "positive matter" in our world, it will explode in an instant, and matter and antimatter will become photons or mesons, releasing huge energy and producing the phenomenon of "annihilation". As far as human beings know, antimatter may be the most powerful energy and explosive substance in the world.
According to the famous mass-energy conversion formula of Einstein's theory of relativity, energy = the square of the speed of light of mass, and a small amount of antimatter can produce amazing huge energy. It can release energy in the form of radiation with an efficiency of 100%, while the efficiency of binuclear fission is 1.5%. Rand Corporation of the United States pointed out in an antimatter experiment report that when 1g antimatter and 1g substance collide and annihilate each other, the energy released is 5 107kW/h, which is about 6 MW years. However, antimatter is extremely unstable, and it can turn everything it touches into ashes, even air. At present, any large particle accelerator in the world can produce a small amount of antimatter, but it can't produce enough antimatter on a large scale and cheaply.
On March 24, 2004, at the "Advanced Concept Seminar" held by NASA, the data released by Americans showed that it took nearly $6 billion to make one gram of antimatter. However, according to the report of Nature on June 5438+1 October 08, 2008, American military scientists invented a new method to produce antimatter, which reduced the cost of producing one millionth antimatter from 1 billion dollars to1billion dollars. In addition, the European Research Center has been developing a new antimatter auxiliary reducer, which is an advanced antimatter production equipment, which is expected to greatly improve antimatter production capacity.