45 lines
2.2 KiB
HTML
45 lines
2.2 KiB
HTML
<h2>Knows</h2>
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<p>Antimatter sounds like an exotic and mysterious substance that
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could destroy the world in no time at all. In fact, it is the same as
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everything else, just with a different charge[ref]. Antiparticles have
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all the same properties[ref] as particles, with the same mass and the
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same stability, and so are not more than everyday matter. Every
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particle has a corresponding antiparticle, with all of the same
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properties, except with an opposite charge. So an electron[ref] which
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is negatively charged[ref], will have a positively charged[ref]
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antiparticle called a positron.</p>
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<p>The problem comes when matter and antimatter come together. Because
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there is a lot of matter in our universe, antimatter is quite likely
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to bump into its corresponding matter partner. When an equivalent
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matter and antimatter pair collide they annihilate, which means that
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they disappear, releasing a huge amount of energy. Antiparticles can
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only annihilate with their particle pair, so a antiproton will not
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annihilate with an electron. However, because there are lots of
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protons around in our universe, it is likely that the antiproton will
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quickly find one to annihilate with.</p>
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<h2>Don't Knows</h2>
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<p>There is a lot that we still don’t know for certain about
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antiparticles. We do not know why there are so many particles and not
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many antiparticles. It is obvious that antiparticles will annihilate
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quickly which explains why there is not much antimatter left in our
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universe, but if all antimatter has been annihilated by matter, then
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there should be no matter left at all. As it is, we have lots of
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matter, so there must have been a lot more matter created at the time
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of the big bang than antimatter. We are currently trying to work out
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why that is.</p>
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<p>We create antiparticles in exactly the same quantity as particles
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when we collide particles. When the particles hit a target at a very
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high energy, many different particles will come out. Particles will be
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produced in pairs, with each particle also having their
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antiparticle. </p>
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<h2> Outlook</h2>
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<p> We're almost done. You were probably already waiting for the
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last chapter, the one on the Higgs boson. Here it comes!</p>
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