Commonwealth Games 2010

Singapore Youth Olympics..2010.

 

 

 

 

Bishan Sports Hall, Tuesday, August 24, 2010 — The Singapore team failed to qualify for tomorrow’s rhythmic gymnastics group all-around final after finishing in fifth place with a score of 39.150.

Making it through to the final instead are the top-four teams — Russia, Japan, Egypt and Canada — in today’s qualification rotations.

The Singapore quartet, consisting of Phann Yilin, Ann Sim, Cecilia Chia and Miki Nomura missed out on the final by two points — 39.150 to Canada’s (the fourth placed team) 41.150.

“I think that our performances today were not bad but can be improved. It is not our best but it was not bad as well. We could have done better but we did what we wanted to do so we are happy. We were just trying to do our best and it was still up to expectations,” Cecilia, the CHIJ St. Nicholas girl said.

Nonetheless, the girls managed to finish 1.050 points ahead of the quartet from Australia, who finished sixth and last.

Decked in blue, the Singapore girls were the first to show off their routine using the hoops. They strutted gracefully onto the floor and performed gymnastic stunts and a series of tosses, throws and catches using the hoop.

The 15-year-olds scored 19.600 in this rotation after a 0.20 point penalty, placing them fifth overall.

Donning white costumes, the girls executed their second routine, using ribbons, with grace and poise.

Even though one of the ribbons dropped to the ground in the midst of the performance, the team was still happy with their performance, satisfactory enough to give their coach, Zhu Xiaoping, high-fives at the end of it.

Despite being the first team to perform for both rotations, the girls did not feel the pressure. They said: “In fact, it is better to perform first. We don’t feel so stressed after our performances and we can relax instead of waiting (anxiously).”

Their second routine with the ribbons, which lasted two-and-a-half minutes, earned them a “Well Done Singapore!” from the audience and 19.550 points from the panel of judges.

When asked which apparatus is the harder to perform with, Cecilia answered: “For us it would be ribbons, because it is very hard to be in control of the patterns. But if you don’t put your heart to it, both can be as difficult.”

Russia’s Ksenia Dudkina, Olga Ilina, Alina Makarenko and Karolina Sevastyanova dominated both rotations. They earned 26.450 points in the first rotation and they extended their lead in the second rotation with 25.800 points. The girls accumulated 52.250 points, putting them comfortably ahead of Japan — the next best team — by 6.350 points.

The Group All-Around Final will take place tomorrow         <25th Aug,2010> at 6pm (local time) at the Bishan Sports Hall.

My new @myspace.com email address

Hey, I have a new email address: shivaram16@myspace.com Drop me a line! -Shiva

I LOVE SINGAPORE..

I LOVE SINGAPORE..

click me!!!

Alienware : The Ultimate Gaming Machine™

                           Don't confuse the new M17x with the busted old Area-51 m17x that it replaced.                          

I haven't gotten to test one of these systems yet and I haven't read any definitive reviews, but from what I've seen things are looking good so far. The chassis looks great, even compared to the m17x "Ripley" design (which was adequate), and the options allow for a capable computer. It's a bit pricey and I'm pretty sure that it's not the best gaming notebook dollar-for-dollar, but it's hard to deny the appeal of it.

Here is a build that I think would work nicely but still manages a reasonable price:

Starting price: $1799

    * Core 2 Duo T9600 ($200 upgrade)
    * Vista Home Premium 64-bit
    * Dual Nvidia 260M video cards ($300)
    * 1920×1200 display ($150)
    * 4GB 1066 DDR3 RAM
    * dual 320GB disks in RAID0 ($50)
    * DVD burner

Total price: $2499 (pre-tax).

That's a solid system that doesn't skimp on anything serious. Plus it allows for SLI video, and two hard drives. I would point out that if you want the system for workstation tasks you should consider the quad-core Q9000 processor (+$50) but that drops you down to 2.0GHz. Also the RAID0 is not for everyone, but it could be a cheap speed boost if you don't want to get the SSD. If this is your main computer or you want to do work with it, you can go RAID1 for the same price. Also, if you have a nice external display that you'll be using, go with a 1440×900 display and save yourself $150 (you almost buy a 24-inch display with that much these days).

THE SKYWALK DAY

THE RATTLE SNAKE BODY OF IT

THE UPHILLL WALK..

hii

Hiii..blog s awsome!!



With All My Love

THE PERFECT!!!!

ACCORDING TO ME HE IS THE ONLY PERFECT ONE WHO HAS EVER LIVED AFTER MY DAD!!CMON M A HUMAN 2OOO...

Relation Between Science, Philosophy And Religion

"Science is exact knowledge of the facts of nature, classified and systematized."

"Philosophy is the conclusions which men, in their search for a knowledge of truth, have drawn from the facts of Science."

Well anyone can be free opposing with their comments as that is what would make space in "mind" for the next few intrestin para s...

"THIS IS AN EXTRACT FROM A BOOK THAT WOULD MAKE YOU YAWN BUT THE ENORMUS AMOUNT OF THINGS HE TRIES TO SAY EXCLAMATES US..

( Originally Published Early 1900's )"

Beggining form the intial' ...

Science, Philosophy and Religion ought to begin with the known facts of human life and its environment. They represent three attempts to explain the universe. Their mission is correlated, namely, to extend the limitations of knowledge, to cultivate devotion and obedience to Truth and Law, to include and comprehend man as he is with all that he is capable of becoming in one explanation of life or story of the process of evolution which shall be in harmony with the whole plan that apparently fills all time and space.

The evolution, growth and development of Science, Philosophy and Religion involve the whole history of man as differentiated from the animals. The progress which man has made in these departments measures his departure from the animal plane. The goal is ever-present and will, doubtless, always continue to be the next step. There is no zenith. There can be no conclusion. No doubt, the unknown will continue to exist, and thus provide materials and incentives for growth in knowledge, refinement and power.

The principle of gradual development, or evolution, seems to pervade and illumine every department of nature and every phase of human life and thought. This grand principle is clearly not dependent upon organic evolution of physical bodies. That is a minor theory which has too long obscured far more important facts and relations. These more important facts and relations are analyzed and synthesized in Science, Philosophy and Religion.

We have no knowledge of any beginnings but imperfect ones. We have no information regarding origins which do not indicate far less perfect conditions than are now visible. There is no reliable record of any Golden Age or any previous better condition. The theory called "the Fall of Man," based upon the first chapters of Genesis, does not give any particulars of a previous better state. That allegory does not picture anything in Adam's attainments prior to "the fall" which we would consider as satisfactory. If the Adamic state is considered satisfactory it is difficult to explain why Adam "fell."

However, there is very probably a dim record in every soul, of feelings and intuitions of what may have been the "Fall" or descent of spirit into matter. This may have given rise to the tradition, but it is merely speculative, in the absence of further knowledge. Nevertheless, there are some things which we may reasonably consider that we do know.

For example:

We know that History begins with story, legend and tradition. It is the labor and difficulty of historians of every epoch, modern or ancient, to separate the facts from their associations.

We know that Science and Religion alike had their origin in myths. One had just as respectable a birth as the other. They have equally good, and bad, records. It is the proper business of every honest person to discriminate and to select what seems most reasonable while rejecting the explanations which seem unreasonable.

We know that great empires were established for centuries upon the theory of "the divine right of kings." The gradual increase of intelligence and independence has diminished the power of that theory to a considerable extent.

We know that many systems of laws were supposed to be of Divine gift. Only when the intellectual development of the people advanced beyond the limits allowed by the system, did they doubt its origin. When they were able to legislate improvements for themselves, they understood the necessary derivation of all laws from human insight and understanding.

Now, if History and Science, Empires and Legislations began in mythological beliefs, is there any reason for casting any reflection upon Religion for having a similar origin?

It is evident that the race has ascended to the degree of knowledge it has of every kind, through legend, myth and fable. Science, Philosophy and Religion have similar histories. All forms of government, Ecclesiastical, Military and Civil, have the same main features of historical development; nor can any man say which has the best record.

Therefore, representatives of any system or institution should be considerate with representatives of any other.

Science, Philosophy and Religion are all tainted with personal opinions, prejudices and ignorance. In fact, it would seem that to every individual clings more or less of tradition, superstition, imperfect intuitions, or the results of imagination. One of the greatest obstacles to adequate interpretations is a limited range of genuine knowledge. "A little learning is a dangerous thing." Intelligent and justly-famed Biologists endeavor to interpret higher ranges of nature's phenomena by the principles and laws they have discerned among the animals. On the other hand, men of deep personal piety and sterling character ignore the vast range of nature's phenomena and the great achievements of Science because these are outside of their religious interests as they understand them.

The tendency of Science and Religion to approach a unity in intelligence and reverence is one measure of their growth. The scientist needs the religious spirit in the true sense to appreciate the highest product of nature of which we are cognizant, which is the soul of man. The religious man needs Science to enable him to appreciate his own environment and the possibilities afforded thereby.

To many people the idea of a scientific Religion is unthinkable, preposterous, and even blasphemous. But patient thinking and correct Philosophy bave changed this attitude in many cases. True Religion and true Philosophy are both scientific. Devotion to Science should become part of Religion. Religion is applied Science and Philosophy.

As all our present institutions are products of the past, we have interest in everything that illumines the mental pathway of our ancestors. While learning from the past, we should resolve to make better records in every respect. We are animated with more intelligent and powerful life forces, especially on the mental and spiritual planes. Our facilities for accomplishing definite results are superior in numberless respects. We have greater opportunities than any preceding generation.

Science is being continually re-written, but it is not discredited thereby. Without having absolute confidence in the full correctness of any explanation of nature's phenomena and laws, we have working faith in all Science as it exists. We are not disabled by our consciousness of its limitations and its lack of certainty. On the contrary, we are assisted by the degree of knowledge which we have attained. Our cheerfulness is not founded upon presumption but upon a large degree of certainty.

FOR MORE REFERENCE BEFORE PART-II

VISIT http://www.oldandsold.com/..

MATHEMATICS........

"Maths" and "Math" redirect here. For other uses of "Mathematics" or "Math", see Mathematics (disambiguation) and Math (disambiguation).

Euclid, Greek mathematician, 3rd century BC, as imagined by Raphael in this detail from The School of Athens.

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, relation, change, and various topics of pattern, form and entity. Mathematicians seek out patterns and other quantitative dimensions, whether dealing with numbers, spaces, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or other entities.Mathematicians formulate new conjectures and establish truth by rigorous deduction from appropriately chosen axioms and definitions.

There is debate over whether mathematical objects exist objectively by nature of their logical purity, or whether they are manmade and detached from reality. The mathematician Benjamin Peirce called mathematics "the science that draws necessary conclusions".Albert Einstein, on the other hand, stated that "as far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain; and as far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."

Through the use of abstraction and logical reasoning, mathematics evolved from counting, calculation, measurement, and the systematic study of the shapes and motions of physical objects. Knowledge and use of basic mathematics have always been an inherent and integral part of individual and group life. Refinements of the basic ideas are visible in mathematical texts originating in the ancient Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Chinese, Greek and Islamic worlds. Rigorous arguments first appeared in Greek mathematics, most notably in Euclid's Elements. The development continued in fitful bursts until the Renaissance period of the 16th century, when mathematical innovations interacted with new scientific discoveries, leading to an acceleration in research that continues to the present day.

Today, mathematics is used throughout the world as an essential tool in many fields, including natural science, engineering, medicine, and the social sciences such as economics and psychology. Applied mathematics, the branch of mathematics concerned with application of mathematical knowledge to other fields, inspires and makes use of new mathematical discoveries and sometimes leads to the development of entirely new disciplines. Mathematicians also engage in pure mathematics, or mathematics for its own sake, without having any application in mind, although practical applications for what began as pure mathematics are often discovered later...

.

Antiparticle

 

Corresponding to most kinds of particles, there is an associated antiparticle with the same mass and opposite electric charge. For example, the antiparticle of the electron is the positively charged antielectron, or positron, which is produced naturally in certain types of radioactive decay.

The laws of nature are very nearly symmetrical with respect to particles and antiparticles. For example, an antiproton and a positron can form an antihydrogen atom, which has almost exactly the same properties as a hydrogen atom. A physicist whose body was made of antimatter, doing experiments in a laboratory also made of antimatter, using chemicals and substances comprised of antiparticles, would find almost exactly the same results in all experiments. This leads to the question of why the formation of matter after the Big Bang resulted in a universe consisting almost entirely of matter, rather than being a half-and-half mixture of matter and antimatter. The discovery of CP violation helped to shed light on this problem by showing that this symmetry, originally thought to be perfect, was only approximate.

Particle-antiparticle pairs can annihilate each other, producing photons; since the charges of the particle and antiparticle are opposite, charge is conserved. For example, the antielectrons produced in natural radioactive decay quickly annihilate themselves with electrons, producing pairs of gamma rays.

Antiparticles are produced naturally in beta decay, and in the interaction of cosmic rays in the Earth's atmosphere. Because charge is conserved, it is not possible to create an antiparticle without either destroying a particle of the same charge (as in beta decay), or creating a particle of the opposite charge. The latter is seen in many processes in which both a particle and its antiparticle are created simultaneously, as in particle accelerators. This is the inverse of the particle-antiparticle annihilation process.

Although particles and their antiparticles have opposite charges, electrically neutral particles need not be identical to their antiparticles. The neutron, for example, is made out of quarks, the antineutron from antiquarks, and they are distinguishable from one another because neutrons and antineutrons annihilate each other upon contact. However, other neutral particles are their own antiparticles, such as photons, the hypothetical gravitons, and WIMPs. These are called Majorana particles and can annihilate with themselves.

 

 

History

Experiment

In 1932, soon after the prediction of positrons by Paul Dirac, Carl D. Anderson found that cosmic-ray collisions produced these particles in a cloud chamber— a particle detector in which moving electrons (or positrons) leave behind trails as they move through the gas. The electric charge-to-mass ratio of a particle can be measured by observing the curling of its cloud-chamber track in a magnetic field. Originally, positrons, because of the direction that their paths curled, were mistaken for electrons travelling in the opposite direction.

The antiproton and antineutron were found by Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain in 1955 at the University of California, Berkeley. Since then the antiparticles of many other subatomic particles have been created in particle accelerator experiments. In recent years, complete atoms of antimatter have been assembled out of antiprotons and positrons, collected in electromagnetic traps^{[citation needed]}.

Hole theory

... the development of quantum field theory made the interpretation of antiparticles as holes unnecessary, even though it lingers on in many textbooks.  —  Steven Weinberg in The quantum theory of fields, Vol I, p 14, ISBN 0-521-55001-7

Solutions of the Dirac equation contained negative energy quantum states. As a result, an electron could always radiate energy and fall into a negative energy state. Even worse, it could keep radiating infinite amount of energy because there were infinitely many negative energy states available. To prevent this unphysical situation from happening, Dirac proposed that a "sea" of negative-energy electrons fills the universe, already occupying all of the lower energy states so that, due to the Pauli exclusion principle no other electron could fall into them. Sometimes, however, one of these negative energy particles could be lifted out of this Dirac sea to become a positive energy particle. But when lifted out, it would leave behind a hole in the sea which would act exactly like a positive energy electron with a reversed charge. These he interpreted as the proton, and called his paper of 1930 A theory of electrons and protons.

Dirac was aware of the problem that his picture implied an infinite negative charge for the universe. Dirac tried to argue that we would perceive this as the normal state of zero charge. Another difficulty was the difference in masses of the electron and the proton. Dirac tried to argue that this was due to the electromagnetic interactions with the sea, until Hermann Weyl proved that hole theory was completely symmetric between negative and positive charges. Dirac also predicted a reaction e⁻+p⁺ → γ+γ, where an electron and a proton annihilate to give two photons. Robert Oppenheimer and Igor Tamm proved that this would cause ordinary matter to disappear too fast. A year later, in 1931, Dirac modified his theory and postulated the positron, a new particle of the same mass as the electron. The discovery of this particle the next year removed the last two objections to his theory.

However, the problem of infinite charge of the universe remains. Also, as we now know, bosons also have antiparticles, but since they do not obey the Pauli exclusion principle, hole theory doesn't work for them. A unified interpretation of antiparticles is now available in quantum field theory, which solves both these problems.

Particle-antiparticle annihilation

Main article: Annihilation

An example of a virtual pion pair which influences the propagation of a kaon causing a neutral kaon to mix with the antikaon. This is an example of renormalization in quantum field theory— the field theory being necessary because the number of particles changes from one to two and back again.

If a particle and antiparticle are in the appropriate quantum states, then they can annihilate each other and produce other particles. Reactions such as e⁻ + e⁺ →  γ + γ (the two-photon annihilation of an electron-positron pair) is an example. The single-photon annihilation of an electron-positron pair, e⁻ + e⁺ → γ cannot occur because it is impossible to conserve energy and momentum together in this process. The reverse reaction is also impossible for this reason. However, in quantum field theory this process is allowed as an intermediate quantum state for times short enough that the violation of energy conservation can be accommodated by the uncertainty principle. This opens the way for virtual pair production or annihilation in which a one particle quantum state may fluctuate into a two particle state and back. These processes are important in the vacuum state and renormalization of a quantum field theory. It also opens the way for neutral particle mixing through processes such as the one pictured here: which is a complicated example of mass renormalization.

Properties of antiparticles

Quantum states of a particle and an antiparticle can be interchanged by applying the charge conjugation (C), parity (P), and time reversal (T) operators. If |p,σ,n> denotes the quantum state of a particle (n) with momentum p, spin J whose component in the z-direction is σ, then one has

where n^c denotes the charge conjugate state, i.e., the antiparticle. This behaviour under CPT is the same as the statement that the particle and its antiparticle lie in the same irreducible representation of the Poincare group. Properties of antiparticles can be related to those of particles through this. If T is a good symmetry of the dynamics, then

where the proportionality sign indicates that there might be a phase on the right hand side. In other words, particle and antiparticle must have

the same mass m

the same spin state J

opposite electric charges
q and -q.

Quantum field theory

This section draws upon the ideas, language and notation of canonical quantization of a quantum field theory.

One may try to quantize an electron field without mixing the annihilation and creation operators by writing

where we use the symbol k to denote the quantum numbers p and σ of the previous section and the sign of the energy, E(k), and a_k denotes the corresponding annihilation operators. Of course, since we are dealing with fermions, we have to have the operators satisfy canonical anti-commutation relations. However, if one now writes down the Hamiltonian

then one sees immediately that the expectation value of H need not be positive. This is because E(k) can have any sign whatsoever, and the combination of creation and annihilation operators has expectation value 1 or 0.

So one has to introduce the charge conjugate antiparticle field, with its own creation and annihilation operators satisfying the relations

where k has the same p, and opposite σ and sign of the energy. Then one can rewrite the field in the form

where the first sum is over positive energy states and the second over those of negative energy. The energy becomes

where E₀ is an infinite negative constant. The vacuum state is defined as the state with no particle or antiparticle, i.e., and . Then the energy of the vacuum is exactly E₀. Since all energies are measured relative to the vacuum, H is positive definite. Analysis of the properties of a_k and b_k shows that one is the annihilation operator for particles and the other for antiparticles. This is the case of a fermion.

This approach is due to Vladimir Fock, Wendell Furry and Robert Oppenheimer. If one quantizes a real scalar field, then one finds that there is only one kind of annihilation operator; therefore real scalar fields describe neutral bosons. Since complex scalar fields admit two different kinds of annihilation operators, which are related by conjugation, such fields describe charged bosons.

The Feynman-Stueckelberg interpretation

By considering the propagation of the negative energy modes of the electron field backward in time, Ernst Stueckelberg reached a pictorial understanding of the fact that the particle and antiparticle have equal mass m and spin J but opposite charges q. This allowed him to rewrite perturbation theory precisely in the form of diagrams. Richard Feynman later gave an independent systematic derivation of these diagrams from a particle formalism, and they are now called Feynman diagrams. Each line of a diagram represents a particle propagating either backward or forward in time. This technique is the most widespread method of computing amplitudes in quantum field theory today.

Since this picture was first developed by Ernst Stueckelberg, and acquired its modern form in Feynman's work, it is called the Feynman-Stueckelberg interpretation of antiparticles to honor both scientists.

See also

Gravitational interaction of antimatter

Parity, charge conjugation and time reversal symmetry.

CP violations and the baryon asymmetry of the universe.

Quantum field theory and the list of particles

Baryogenesis

References

Feynman, Richard P. "The reason for antiparticles", in The 1986 Dirac memorial lectures, R.P. Feynman and S. Weinberg. Cambridge University Press, 1987. ISBN 0-521-34000-4.

Weinberg, Steven. The quantum theory of fields, Volume 1: Foundations. Cambridge University Press, 1995. ISBN 0-521-55001-7.

 

Antimatter

AntimaternavigationsearchAntimatter (disambiguation)In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles. For example, an antielectron (a positron, an electron with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a proton with a negative charge) could form an antihydrogen atom in the same way that an electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. Furthermore, mixing matter and antimatter would lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.

There is considerable speculation as to why the observable universe is apparently almost entirely matter, whether there exist other places that are almost entirely antimatter instead, and what might be possible if antimatter could be harnessed, but at this time the apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. The process by which this asymmetry between particles and antiparticles developed is called baryogenesis.

Notation

One way to denote an antiparticle is by adding a bar (or macron) over the particle's symbol. For example, the proton and antiproton are denoted as p and p, respectively. The same rule applies if you were to address a particle by its constituent components. A proton is made up of u u d quarks, so an antiproton must therefore be formed from u u d antiquarks. Another convention is to distinguish particles by their electric charge. Thus, the electron and positron are denoted simply as e⁻ and e⁺ respectively.

Origin (naturally occurring production)

Asymmetry

Almost every object observable from the Earth seems to be made of matter rather than antimatter. Many scientists believe that this preponderance of matter over antimatter (known as baryon asymmetry) is the result of an imbalance in the production of matter and antimatter particles in the early universe, in a process called baryogenesis. The amount of matter presently observable in the universe only requires an imbalance in the early universe on the order of one extra matter particle per billion matter-antimatter particle pairs.^[1]

Antiparticles are created everywhere in the universe where high-energy particle collisions take place. High-energy cosmic rays impacting Earth's atmosphere (or any other matter in the solar system) produce minute quantities of antimatter in the resulting particle jets, which are immediately annihilated by contact with nearby matter. It may similarly be produced in regions like the center of the Milky Way Galaxy and other galaxies, where very energetic celestial events occur (principally the interaction of relativistic jets with the interstellar medium). The presence of the resulting antimatter is detectable by the gamma rays produced when positrons annihilate with nearby matter. The gamma rays' frequency and wavelength indicate that each carries 511 keV of energy (i.e. the rest mass of an electron or positron multiplied by c²).

Recent observations by the European Space Agency's INTEGRAL (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) satellite may explain the origin of a giant cloud of antimatter surrounding the galactic center. The observations show that the cloud is asymmetrical and matches the pattern of X-ray binaries, binary star systems containing black holes or neutron stars, mostly on one side of the galactic center. While the mechanism is not fully understood, it is likely to involve the production of electron-positron pairs, as ordinary matter gains tremendous energy while falling into a stellar remnant.^[2][3]

Antimatter may exist in relatively large amounts in far away galaxies due to cosmic inflation in the primordial time of the universe. NASA is trying to determine if this is true by looking for X-ray and gamma ray signatures of annihilation events in colliding superclusters.^[4]

Artificial production

Antiparticles are also produced in any environment with a sufficiently high temperature (mean particle energy greater than the pair production threshold). During the period of baryogenesis, when the universe was extremely hot and dense, matter and antimatter were continually produced and annihilated. The presence of remaining matter, and absence of detectable remaining antimatter,^[5] also called baryon asymmetry, is attributed to violation of the CP-symmetry relating matter and antimatter. The exact mechanism of this violation during baryogenesis remains a mystery.

Positrons are also produced via the radioactive beta⁺ decay, but this mechanism can be considered as "natural" as well as "artificial".

Antihydrogen

Main article: Antihydrogen

In 1995 CERN announced that it had successfully brought into existence nine antihydrogen atoms by implementing the SLAC/Fermilab concept during the PS210 experiment. The experiment was performed using the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR), and was led by Walter Oelert and Mario Macri. Fermilab soon confirmed the CERN findings by producing approximately 100 antihydrogen atoms at their facilities.

The antihydrogen atoms created during PS210, and subsequent experiments (at both CERN and Fermilab) were extremely energetic ("hot") and were not well suited to study. To resolve this hurdle, and to gain a better understanding of antihydrogen, two collaborations were formed in the late 1990s — ATHENA and ATRAP. In 2005, ATHENA disbanded and some of the former members (along with others) formed the ALPHA Collaboration, which is also situated at CERN. The primary goal of these collaborations is the creation of less energetic ("cold") antihydrogen, better suited to study.

In 1999 CERN activated the Antiproton Decelerator, a device capable of decelerating antiprotons from 3.5 GeV to 5.3 MeV — still too "hot" to produce study-effective antihydrogen, but a huge leap forward.

In late 2002 the ATHENA project announced that they had created the world's first "cold" antihydrogen. The antiprotons used in the experiment were cooled sufficiently by decelerating them (using the Antiproton Decelerator), passing them through a thin sheet of foil, and finally capturing them in a Penning trap. The antiprotons also underwent stochastic cooling at several stages during the process.

The ATHENA team's antiproton cooling process is effective, but highly inefficient. Approximately 25 million antiprotons leave the Antiproton Decelerator; roughly 10 thousand make it to the Penning trap.

In early 2004 ATHENA researchers released data on a new method of creating low-energy antihydrogen. The technique involves slowing antiprotons using the Antiproton Decelerator, and injecting them into a Penning trap (specifically a Penning-Malmberg trap^{[citation needed]}). Once trapped the antiprotons are mixed with electrons that have been cooled to an energy potential significantly less than the antiprotons; the resulting Coulomb collisions cool the antiprotons while warming the electrons until the particles reach an equilibrium of approximately 4 K.

While the antiprotons are being cooled in the first trap, a small cloud of positron plasma is injected into a second trap (the mixing trap). Exciting the resonance of the mixing trap's confinement fields can control the temperature of the positron plasma; but the procedure is more effective when the plasma is in thermal equilibrium with the trap's environment. The positron plasma cloud is generated in a positron accumulator prior to injection; the source of the positrons is usually radioactive sodium.

Once the antiprotons are sufficiently cooled, the antiproton-electron mixture is transferred into the mixing trap (containing the positrons). The electrons are subsequently removed by a series of fast pulses in the mixing trap's electrical field. When the antiprotons reach the positron plasma further Coulomb collisions occur, resulting in further cooling of the antiprotons. When the positrons and antiprotons approach thermal equilibrium antihydrogen atoms begin to form. Being electrically neutral the antihydrogen atoms are not affected by the trap and can leave the confinement fields.

Utilizing this method, ATHENA researchers predict they will be able to create up to 100 antihydrogen atoms per operational second.

ATHENA and ATRAP are now seeking to further cool the antihydrogen atoms by subjecting them to an inhomogeneous field. While antihydrogen atoms are electrically neutral, their spin produces magnetic moments. These magnetic moments vary depending on the spin direction of the atom, and can be deflected by inhomogeneous fields regardless of electrical charge.

The biggest limiting factor in the production of antimatter is the availability of antiprotons. Recent data released by CERN states that when fully operational their facilities are capable of producing 10⁷ antiprotons per second.^{[citation needed]} Assuming an optimal conversion of antiprotons to antihydrogen, it would take two billion years to produce 1 gram or 1 mole of antihydrogen (approximately 6.02×10²³ atoms of antihydrogen). Another limiting factor to antimatter production is storage. As stated above there is no known way to effectively store antihydrogen. The ATHENA project has managed to keep antihydrogen atoms from annihilation for tens of seconds — just enough time to briefly study their behaviour.

Hydrogen atoms are the simplest objects that can be considered as "matter" rather than as just particles.

Simultaneous trapping of antiprotons and antielectrons was reported^[6] and the cooling is achieved;^[7] there are patents on the way of production of antihydrogen.^[8]

Antihelium

A small number of nuclei of the antihelium isotope, have been created in collision experiments.^[9]

Positrons

Main article: Positrons

Positrons were reported^[10] in November 2008 to have been generated by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in larger numbers than by any previous synthetic process. A laser drove ionized electrons through a millimeter radius gold target's nuclei, which caused the incoming electrons to emit energy
quanta, that decayed into both matter and antimatter. Positrons were detected at a higher rate and in greater density than ever previously detected in a laboratory.

Previous experiments made smaller quantities of positrons using lasers and paper-thin targets; however, new simulations showed that short, ultra-intense lasers and millimeter-thick gold are a far more effective source.^[11]

Preservation

Antimatter cannot be stored in a container made of ordinary matter because antimatter reacts with any matter it touches, annihilating itself and the container. Antimatter that is composed of charged particles can be contained by a combination of an electric field and a magnetic field in a device known as a Penning trap. This device cannot, however, contain antimatter that consists of uncharged particles, for which atomic traps are used. In particular, such a trap may use the dipole moment (electrical or magnetic) of the trapped particles; at high vacuum, the matter or antimatter particles can be trapped (suspended) and cooled with slightly off-resonant laser radiation (see, for example, magneto-optical trap and Magnetic trap). Small particles can be also suspended by just intensive optical beam in the optical tweezers.

Cost

Antimatter is said to be the most costly substance in existence, with an estimated cost of $62.5 trillion per gram.^[12] This is because production is difficult (only a few atoms are produced in reactions in particle accelerators), and because there is higher demand for the other uses of particle accelerators. According to CERN, it has cost a few hundred million Swiss Francs to produce about 1 billionth of a gram.^[13]

Several NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts-funded studies are exploring whether it might be possible to use magnetic scoops to collect the antimatter that occurs naturally in the Van Allen belts of Earth, and ultimately, the belts of gas giants like Jupiter, hopefully at a lower cost per gram.^[14]

Uses

Medical

Antimatter-matter reactions have practical applications in medical imaging, such as positron emission tomography (PET). In positive beta decay, a nuclide loses surplus positive charge by emitting a positron (in the same event, a proton becomes a neutron, and neutrinos are also given off). Nuclides with surplus positive charge are easily made in a cyclotron and are widely generated for medical use.

Fuel

In antimatter-matter collisions resulting in photon emission, the entire rest mass of the particles is converted to kinetic energy. The energy per unit mass (9×10¹⁶ J/kg) is about 10 orders of magnitude greater than chemical energy (compared to TNT at 4.2×10⁶ J/kg, and formation of water at 1.56×10⁷ J/kg), about 4 orders of magnitude greater than nuclear energy that can be liberated today using nuclear fission (about 40 MeV per ²³⁸U nucleus transmuted to Lead, or 1.5×10¹³ J/kg), and about 2 orders of magnitude greater than the best possible from fusion (about 6.3×10¹⁴ J/kg for the proton-proton chain). The reaction of 1 kg of antimatter with 1 kg of matter would produce 1.8×10¹⁷ J (180 petajoules) of energy (by the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc²), or the rough equivalent of 47 megatons of TNT. For comparison, Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, reacted an estimated yield of 50 Megatons, which required the use of hundreds of kilograms of fissile material (Uranium/Plutonium).

Not all of that energy can be utilized by any realistic technology, because as much as 50% of energy produced in reactions between nucleons and antinucleons is carried away by neutrinos, so, for all intents and purposes, it can be considered lost.^[15]

Antimatter rocketry ideas, such as the redshift rocket, propose the use of antimatter as fuel for interplanetary travel or possibly interstellar travel. A patent has been issued for an antimatter engine claiming speeds up to one third the speed of light.^[16] Since the energy density of antimatter is vastly higher than conventional fuels, the thrust to weight equation for such craft would be very different from conventional spacecraft.

The scarcity of antimatter means that it is not readily available to be used as fuel, although it could be used in antimatter catalyzed nuclear pulse propulsion. Generating a single antiproton is immensely difficult and requires particle accelerators and vast amounts of energy—millions of times more than is released after it is annihilated with ordinary matter due to inefficiencies in the process. Known methods of producing antimatter from energy also produce an equal amount of normal matter, so the theoretical limit is that half of the input energy is converted to antimatter. Counterbalancing this, when antimatter annihilates with ordinary matter, energy equal to twice the mass of the antimatter is liberated—so energy storage in the form of antimatter could (in theory) be 100% efficient.

Antimatter production is currently very limited, but has been growing at a nearly geometric rate since the discovery of the first antiproton in 1955 by Segrè and Chamberlain.^{[citation needed]} The current antimatter production rate is between 1 and 10 nanograms per year, and this is expected to increase to between 3 and 30 nanograms per year by 2015 or 2020 with new superconducting linear accelerator facilities at CERN and Fermilab. Some researchers claim that with current technology, it is possible to obtain antimatter for US$25 million per gram by optimizing the collision and collection parameters (given current electricity generation costs). Antimatter production costs, in mass production, are almost linearly tied in with electricity costs, so economical pure-antimatter thrust applications are unlikely to come online without the advent of such technologies as deuterium-tritium fusion power (assuming that such a power source actually would prove to be cheap). Many experts, however, dispute these claims as being far too optimistic by many orders of magnitude. They point out that in 2004; the annual production of antiprotons at CERN was several picograms at a cost of $20 million. This means to produce 1 gram of antimatter, CERN would need to spend 100 quadrillion dollars and run the antimatter factory for 100 billion years. Storage is another problem, as antiprotons are negatively charged and repel against each other, so that they cannot be concentrated in a small volume. Plasma oscillations in the charged cloud of antiprotons can cause instabilities that drive antiprotons out of the storage trap. For these reasons, to date only a few million antiprotons have been stored simultaneously in a magnetic trap, which corresponds to much less than a femtogram. Antihydrogen atoms or molecules are neutral so in principle they do not suffer the plasma problems of antiprotons described above. But cold antihydrogen is far more difficult to produce than antiprotons, and so far not a single antihydrogen atom has been trapped in a magnetic field.

One researcher of the CERN laboratories, which produces antimatter regularly, said:

"

If we could assemble all of the antimatter we've ever made at CERN and annihilate it with matter, we would have enough energy to light a single electric light bulb for a few minutes.[17]

"

See also

• Ambiplasma
  
• Particle accelerator
  
• Antiparticle
  
• Antihydrogen
  

1. 
   

External links

• Freeview Video 'Antimatter' by the Vega Science Trust and the BBC/OU
  
• CERN Webcasts (RealPlayer required)
  
• What is Antimatter? (from the Frequently Asked Questions at the Center for Antimatter-Matter Studies)
  
• FAQ from CERN with lots of information about antimatter aimed at the general reader, posted in response to antimatter's fictional portrayal in Angels and Demons
  
• What is direct CP-violation?
  
• Animated illustration of antihydrogen production at CERN from the Exploratorium.
  
• Mystery of antimatter source solved - Maybe
  
• Gordon Fraser, Antimatter, The Ultimate Mirror, ISBN 978-0521652520