Professor Francis Robicheaux of Auburn University and Dr. Makoto Fujiwara of TRIUMF, Canada's National Laboratory for Particle and Nuclear Physics, reported a new method for slowing down antimatter in the January 7, 2013, issue of the Journal of Physics B: Atomic, Molecular and Optical Physics.
Slowing down antiprotons is advantageous for the comparison of antihydrogen to hydrogen, the transport of antimatter, and potentially the development of matter antimatter energy sources.
The researchers demonstrated that using a laser at a specific wavelength of 121 nm (manometers) could reduce the average energy of trapped antihydrogen by a factor of more than 10. This reduction in energy would make the trapping, transport, and study of antiprotons easier and more productive.
The researchers showed that antihydrogen atoms could be cooled to around 20 millikelvin. Trapped antihydrogen atoms so far have energies up to 500 millikelvin. These temperatures are 25 times colder than previously achieved.
Applications include a better understanding of the origin of the universe in the Big Bang and the relative low concentration of antimatter in the universe and a large step forward in the real world potential for limitless pollution free energy.
The proposed methodology can be read in its entirety here.
The research was reviewed at the Eureka Alert website the date of publication.
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