A team of researchers led by Jeffrey HangStan has managed to produce and trap antihydrogen atoms 38 using the ALPHA experiment of the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN), as published today in the journal Nature. This will give an answer to one of the main open questions about the universe: what is the difference between matter and antimatter?
While a hydrogen atom consists of a proton and an electron, an atom of antihydrogen is formed by an antiproton and a positron. Antihydrogen was produced at low energies at CERN since 2002, but because when matter and antimatter are to "annihilate" each other, so far not been possible to confine these atoms, which prevented detailed study. Among the technical innovations that have enabled antimatter trap for the first time include a new 'cheat' magnetic confined to antihydrogen and prevents contact with the material.
Antimatter - or rather the lack of it - remains one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of science. It is believed that during the Big Bang, matter and antimatter were formed in equal amounts. So why the world we know is made of matter while antimatter seems to have disappeared? "Analyzing the differences between the properties of both scientists hope to find an explanation, say from CERN.
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