What Is Antimatter?

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of the charm quark was made and it managed to falsify the theory of symmetry. The opposite of charm quarks were not only in opposite charge but also were different in other properties.

Antimatter is a form of matter in which the particles are of an opposite charge than the normal particle’s charge is. For example, an antielectron is known as a positron and has a positive charge yet is just like an electron in many other attributes. They both have the same electron ring configuration and even the same size. The only difference between antimatter and matter are the electric charges. When being written for equations, protons and antiprotons are denoted as p andp . A main property of antimatter is that when any contact of its counterpart is made, both particles collide in such a way that neither matter nor antimatter is left after the collision, but due to the "Law of Conservation of Matter" energy is exerted as a result (usually in the form of photons or light).

In 1905, Albert Einstein created the Theory of Special Relativity which was based on two hypothesizes; that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant and that the laws of physics are equal for observers in relative motion with constant speed. It also has a new idea of space-time and that energy can be converted into mass (and vice versa hinting at annihilation). Following that, Werner Heisenberg founded the idea of Quantum Mechanics which was the theory at the smallest dimensions of the fundamental particles. It stated that in an atom the energy, the momentum, the angular momentum, all assume base values quanta.

Roughly twenty-three years later Paul Dirac combined the ideas of both Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics. Yet his equation he solved had two answers; one was an electron with a negative charge and another with a positive charge! Though it was contrary to classical belief Paul theorized the idea of an "antiparticle." He kept at this theory and later on in his Nobel lecture Dirac theorized that every particle has an antiparticle. The definition of an antiparticle as Dirac described it was any particle with an opposite charge of the commonly known particle. As Dirac experimented with this idea he even thought of the possibility of whole universes made of antimatter. (Martinez, Tanner, & Stephens, 2003)

Though these past physicists were great at suggesting theories, the first man recorded to witness antimatter first hand was an American physicist by the name of Carl David Anderson. In 1932, while working on cosmic rays in his lab, he noticed a particle that behaved like an electron but had a positive charge. Astonished, he rushed to speak of his discovery of the first recorded positron. Yet sadly his age’s technology was limited since the only known way to make more positrons is with the help of a particle accelerator.

Later in the 1950’s, powerful enough particle accelerators were made and the one at Berkeley, California produced both antiprotons and antineutrons. Technology kept improving and then two new particle accelerators were able to produce antideuterons (stable particle consisting of antiprotons and antielectrons) one at CERN, Geneva and the other at Brookhaven, USA. The newest and most powerful particle accelerators to date though are Serpukhov in Russia and CERN which lies beneath the borders of Switzerland and France. Both of these