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Anti-Matter Created By Laser At Livermore
zootropole alerts us to a press release issued today by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, announcing the production of 'billions of particles of anti-matter.' "Take a gold sample the size of the head of a push pin, shoot a laser through it, and suddenly more than 100 billion particles of anti-matter appear. The anti-matter, also known as positrons, shoots out of the target in a cone-shaped plasma 'jet.' This new ability to create a large number of positrons in a small laboratory opens the door to several fresh avenues of anti-matter research, including an understanding of the physics underlying various astrophysical phenomena such as black holes and gamma ray bursts." The press release doesn't characterize the laser used in this experiment, but it may have been this one.
Watch where you point that thing!
Does anyone know how much energy this takes? They mentioned the previous petawatt laser experiment that was decommissioned, but I didn't see where it mentioend the power required for this experiment. If the laser guess by kdawson is correct, we could be looking at a mere 400 joules per 1E11 positrons. Which (if I'm not mistaken) would be an unheard of efficiency for creating antimatter! (Can someone verify? My brain is fried at the moment.)
What I find interesting is that this level of production is competitive with Fermilab. Even if they ran this twice an hour, they'd handily meet or outstrip Fermilab production.
Even more interesting is the possibility for mass manufacture of antimatter. By using mass-produced gold targets, you could rotate the materials in and out of the machine every few seconds, creating previously unseen amounts of antimatter. Such a process could easily provide materials for an antimatter catalyzed fission drive. Possibly even enough to power new forms of interplanetary propulsion.
Am I the only one who's getting really excited about this? /dreamer
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Take a gold sample the size of the head of a push pin, shoot a laser through it, and suddenly more than 100 billion particles of anti-matter appear.
It's so simple, I wish I'd thought of it!
Is there anything they can't do?
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
The anti-matter, also known as positrons, shoots out of the target in a cone-shaped plasma 'jet.'
Apparently, it seems I can create anti-matter from eating too much TacoBell.
I always wondered if they could assemble enough anti-matter to perform a Cavendish experiment if it would prove to be repulsive to regular matter gravitationally. I know the current theory doesn't call for it, but hey, that's why we do the experiments. Very symmetrical (in comparison to the electrostatic force equation), and very cool, if it turned out to be true. On the other hand, somebody should stop these fools now. The next thing they will want to do is bottle the stuff, and regular nukes would be toys in comparison.
This may open the possibility of cheaper PET scans. Currently, the limitation of PET scans is the answer to this question: "How far away is the nearest Cyclotron?" The half life of the radioactive material used in Positron Emission Tomography, typically Flourine-18, is ~110 minutes. With a laser that can generate positrons, you could have a mobile PET scan unit that would only need to rely on being able to connect to the grid.
BTM
That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
Either that, or he/she just isn't a good writer -- that statement implies that all positrons are anti-matter and all anti-matter is positrons. Only the first statement is true.
Nice try, but not true. Your argument would be correct if the statement had read "Anti-matter, also know as positrons...", but it does not. Rather the author says "The antimiater, also known as positrons...".
This sentence only refers to the antimatter created during this experiment. And, near as I can tell, positrons are indeed the only form of antimatter produced in the experiment.
The lesson here - don't post smug messages denouncing someones incorrect grammar when their grammar is in fact correct. Check your facts.
I am hoping that they can produce enough anti-matter to make a weapon of some kind. An anti-matter bomb would be many many thousands of times more powerful than even a hydrogen bomb, and it gives me great hope to think that a bomb that huge would make America even safer than thousands of nuclear warheads already make it.
Oh wait, that was just me getting into touch with my inner-Teller.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Where are the anti matter particles now?
I would think they're touching matter, since they didn't just harmlessly disappear.
Isn't there supposed to be an enormous explosion when matter and anti-matter meet?
Or is that fiction? or friction? Or fission? Or fusion? or confusion?
Does anyone know if this might someday lead to antimatter plants? From a special on discovery, I heard that antimatter has a 100% mass to energy conversion, and uranium/plutonium is very expensive to enrich, so using gold for energy wouldn't be too impractical. This would be very exciting research if it does mean cheap energy at that scale with no pollution.
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Shoot a laser at the 700b bailout money, and see if a surplus appears.
Table-ized A.I.
That sounds dangerous. I, for one, am not willing to welcome our new robotic overlords! (Or regular human overlords with robot armies). Intel would need to come up with a scheme to keep the robots from harming people. Some sort of set of axioms... rules... laws, even... that would apply to all the robots they made, in order to keep them in line. Otherwise it would never work.
The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
Where? In some natural magnetic field? Even, then... how are you going to extract it?
> Does anyone know if this might someday lead to antimatter plants?
Nah, there isn't enough anti-sunlight for them to grow....
with a continuum transfunctioner, silly!
LOL!!! ROFL!! I laughed so hard my drink came out my nose!
Representative Democracy? In what possibly way could you misconstrue that? The ruling elite (Elites, Politicians, Corporations, Military Industrial Complex) pass laws ALL THE TIME that no American wants.
The fact that a small percentage of us voted was just the decision being made between a Douche and a Turd Sandwich. Senators and Congressmen create and pass laws and funding measures all the time that only benefit the corporations.
Who really wanted the Patriot Act? My god, if you press me I can come up with at least 100 (no exaggeration) acts of congress that are appalling, and offensive to the average American.
No Sir! Politics in America DOES not represent the interests of the American People, and when it *appears* to do so, it is only because it furthers the goals of those in power to keep them in power.
LOL.
Citizen participation in politics only occurs when they are under the illusion (delusion really) that they have any meaningful effect on the outcome. You want to have a real meaningful effect? Sink 100 million dollars into a lobbying firm and hope your "bribe" money is better than the competitions.
"Yes, Dr. Scott. A laser capable of emitting a beam of pure anti-matter." It looks like we can no longer shout back 'Then it's not a laser!' Yes, some of us are old enough to remember going to the Rocky Horror Picture Show before it was a cult classic.
Of course, if you made do with neutral antimatter you could clump it together, but then your magnetic containment won't work.
From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
As the other poster mentioned, they would repel each other, but that's not really the end of the answer. If they could be brought close enough together (which they certainly could), they still wouldn't annihilate, because of conservation laws. For one, charge would not be conserved (two positive charges would disappear). Lepton number conservation (think number of electrons conserved) and baryon number conservation (think number of protons conserved) would also be violated. It's for these same sort of conservation laws that negative electrons don't annihilate with positive protons all the time.
According to Robert Lazar, former Area 51 physicist, element 115 is used as fuel generating antimatter in an Annihilation Reactor which powers the craft. http://www.boblazar.com/closed/index.html
Details of Annihilation Reactor operation are here: http://www.boblazar.com/closed/reactor.htm