Antimatter?

Question

I have resently been itrested in particals. I was just wondering if any one knew a easy way to exspaline how antimatter is made artificaly.

Answer 1

Currently, making antimatter takes about a billion times as much energy to do as you can get back when you actually use the stuff.

even if you could collect all of the antiprotons ever made (by humans), you couldn’t even heat up a cup of coffee.

The main idea in making antimatter is just getting enough energy in a collision to allow the particles to be made. If you get electrons going fast enough and throw them at a piece of material called a target, preferably made out of atoms that have a large atomic number, you will have a shower of electrons, positrons (anti-electrons) and photons. The details are as follows:

A high-energy electron, when it comes near a nucleus, will feel the electric field of the charged nucleus, and be deflected in its path. The larger the charge of the nucleus, the more frequently this deflection will happen at large angles. When a fast electron is diverted from its straitght-line path, it radiates some of its energy away as photons. High-energy photons, when they come near another nucleus, can spontaneously turn into an electron-positron pair (conserving charge and the "number of electrons", which both add to zero since a positron has positive charge and is an anti-electron). The second nucleus is there to exchange energy and momentum with, otherwise you cannot start with a photon (zero mass) and end up with two objects with mass and conserve energy and momentum.

If the electron and positron thus produced have enough energy, they can undergo scattering with more nuclei, radiate photons which can pair-produce more electrons and positrons, creating a whole "shower" of electrons, positrons, and photons. Positrons then can be separated away with magnets and collected in particle accelerators.

Answer 2

Positrons (anti-electrons) result in collisions between atoms and gamma-rays. They are also the product of natural radioactive decay of certain isotopes of certain elements (Nitrogen 12 and 13 are examples)

Gamma-ray collision positrons are always produced in pairs with electrons (beta particles), so they always annihilate one another instantly.

Radioactive decay positrons are generated in isolation, but they don't stand much chance of survival either, because they have to pass from the nucleus of the decayed atom through the cloud of electrons outside. One of the many electrons is going to "get it".

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Answer 3

Antimatter can be created by firing protons at lattice targets of lithium. (So, dilithium crystals really do have merit!)
High energy collision of particles can also do this (in a particle accelerator, for example).

Answer 4

Different ways. You can shoot gamma rays at nuclei to achieve pair production. I think they shoot protons at a hyperon beam to achieve pair production at CERN. Remember that particle/antiparticle pairs can annihilate each other if aligned right back into two gamma rays.

Answer 5

Antiparticles are created anywhere high-energy collisions take place. They are naturally occuring, or we can cause them to be created in something like a supercollider.

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