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| A picture showing how the big bang theory works. |
To begin with, lets start with the history of the antimatter first. Then we will look at what scientists have achieved in this past years after the discovery of antimatter.
History of Antimatter
The theory of antimatter first discussed in 1880 by William Mitch, a British mathematician and physicist. Somewhere between 1880 and 1890s, Karl Pearson, also a British mathematician theorized that there are positive and negative matter (a term where Pearson referred to as coining). 1898, a German-born British physicist Artur Schuster sent two controversial letters to Nature (journal for scientific discoveries) about the possibility of antiatom, and describe the possibility of atom and antiatom to annihilate one another in the early universe. Schuster's letters were more of a controversial and speculative thought, rather than a theoretical proposal that the first two mathematicians explained.
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| Paul Dirac |
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| Karl Pearson |
p/s: I tried to find picture of William Mitch, but couldn't find any. Sorry.
Modern theory of antimatter was given by Paul Dirac, a Swiss theoretical physicist in which while working with Schrodinger's Equation to study the electron, he predicted the possibility of antielectrons. This was later confirmed by the finding of antielectron itself by Carl D Anderson, and he named it positron (combination between positive and electron i think). After this important discoveries, the antimatter discoveries advanced once more with the discovery of antiprotons and antineutrons. The term antimatter came along with the discoveries of these antiatom in the year 1900s.
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| Diagram showing the differences between H and H-bar |
Achievement
At first, only the antielectron, antiprotons and antineutrons were discovered. The question remained was is there going to be a complete antiatom? The answer to that was yes thanks to CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) in 1995 when they artificially made the antihydrogen in their lab. The antihydrogen contains one positron and one antiproton. On Earth, antimatters are the most expensive thing a company can produce. The cost for 10 miligrams of positron can reach up to 250 billion USD and a gram of antihydrogen can cost you about 62.5 trillion USD. So far the creation of these antimatter is only about a billionth of a gram as this is the amount that is used in research laboratory. Still, it cost you around hundreds of millions swiss franc just to produce in that amount.
The latest news in the discovery of antimatter is the creationn of antihelium-4, the weightiest antimatter ever created. Scientists claimed that this record will likely stand longer, as because it is far and out of reach of today's Earth technology. Anyway, you can read the rest of the news here because it's hard for me to explain all the things there. On the other hand, since the cost of producing antimatter is too high, scientists believe that they can exploit the antimatter exists in Van Allen Belt (if there's any). Sincerely, i do hope that they can find the way to produce antimatter better because of the vast energy it hold when giving out a reaction with matter.
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| Van Allen Radiation Belt |
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