Exploring the mystery of creation
Small particles hold big clues
The simplist atom in the universe may unlock the keys to the origin of all creation. Well, the simplest anti-atom, that is.
And the mystery of the birth of time and all matter will still take some time to unveil.
But researchers, including a graduate student at the University of Calgary, are doing their best at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Geneva.
Tim Friesen, a PHD candidate, helped to create a magnetic trap for antimatter atoms. Scientists have managed to blast them with microwave radiation to study their spectral fingerprint.
This latest accomplishment was published Wednesday in the journal Nature.
The experiment was testing whether the anti-hydrogen reacted to radiation in the same way a normal hydrogen atom would.
Although the antimatter atom has the polar opposite charge of an ordinary atom, they should be mirror images of each other.
“The reason we’re studying hydrogen very carefully is that it’s the simplest system — it has one proton and one electron,” Friesen said.
Before the dawn of time, matter and antimatter lived in equal measure, each annihilating the other into a great nothingness. But at some point — and researchers don’t yet know why — matter won and multiplied, making the universe as we know it possible.
Scientists at CERN have now created and trapped antimatter particles — quite the feat considering the anti-atoms are destroyed in a microscopic speck of light whenever they touch matter.
By examining the anti-hydrogen with microwave radiation, researchers hope to eventually find out how it is different from normal atoms, which will hopefully unveil why matter overtook antimatter.
“If we can see any small difference (between hydrogen and anti-hydrogen), maybe we can get some idea of why there is this preference for matter in the universe,” Friesen said.
It’s potentially groundbreaking work.
“We’re truly exploring things humanity has never looked at before and we don’t know what we’re going to find behind the curtain,” said Robert Thompson, an associate professor and the head of the department of physics and astronomy at the university.
And while the topic may seem obscure to non-scientists, Thompson said major physics discoveries have lead to inventions scientists could never have imagined.
For example, the discovery of quantum mechanics led to lasers.
“People who were thinking about quantum theory weren’t thinking about lasers at all,” he said.
It is yet unknown what future research of this nature will lead to.
But in the meantime, the antihydrogen tests were so successful that the university is helping to fabricate a new apparatus to improve the experiment.