Department of Mechanical Engineering

Technical Seminar on
ANTIMATTER
Guided By – Prof. Sanket R Moharir

Presented By – Prasad Rathi

5th Sem - Roll No: 57
 CONTENTS
• What is matter?
• What is antimatter?
• History of Antimatter.
• Natural Occurrence.
• Artificial Production.
• Antimatter Storage.
• Annihilation.
• 100% Efficient Process.
• Applications.
• Problems & Disadvantages.
• Conclusion.
• References.
 WHY THIS TOPIC?
• Vast scope
• Creating Awareness
• Evergreen topic
 WHAT IS MATTER?
• Everything around us.
• Consists of Particles:-
Protons
Electrons
Neutrons
 WHAT IS ANTIMATTER?
• Mirror Images/ Opposite of matter.
• Consists Antiparticles:-
Antiprotons
Antielectrons
Antineutrons
NORMAL ATOM ANTI ATOM
 HISTORY
•The modern theory of antimatter begins
in 1928, with a paper by Paul Dirac.
• Dirac realized his version of the
Schrödinger wave equation for electrons
was predicting the possibility of
antielectrons.
•Positrons discovered by Carl Anderson in
1932.
•Antiprotons discovered in 1955.
•Antiatoms discovered in 1995 by CERN.
 NATURAL OCCURANCE
• Antiparticles are created everywhere in the
universe where high-energy particle collisions
take place.
• Matter & antimatter were created in gigantic
Big Bang.
• Radiation and fusion processes in the sun
produce positrons.
 ARTIFICIAL PRODUCTION
• Produced in Atom Smashers/ Antiproton Decelerators.

• Particles of most atoms are accelerated to very high

speeds

• The particles are aimed and allowed to impact on a

target (tungsten)

• The kinetic energy caused by acceleration is converted

into gamma radiation, positrons and antiprotons
IMAGES OF LABS WHERE ANTIMATTER IS ARTIFICIALLY PRODUCED
 ANTIMATTER STORAGE
• Cannot be stored in a container made of
ordinary matter.
• Can be stored in a trap which has the
appropriate configuration of electrical and
magnetic fields to keep them confined in a
small place.
• Penning Trap.
• Super cold, vacuumed, electromagnetic bottle
in which charged particles of antimatter can
be suspended .
• Capacity = 1 x 1010 antiprotons/week .
ANNIHILATION
 ANNIHILATION
• Annihilation is the process that occurs when a
subatomic particle collides with its respective
antiparticle.
• Ex . Positron + electron = energy
• Large amounts of energy
• Energy Produced = 9 x 1016 J/Kg
• Ten billion times more energy then
hydrogen/oxygen
• 300 times the fusion reaction at sun’s core.
 100% EFFICIENT PROCESS
Ideal energy density –
• For chemical reactions – 1 x 107 (10^7) J/kg
• For nuclear fission - 8 x 1013 (10^13) J/kg
• For nuclear fusion - 3 x 1014 (10^14) J/kg
• For matter-antimatter annihilation - 9 x 1016
(10^16) J/kg.
• This is 1010 (10 billion) times that of
conventional chemical propellants. This
represents the highest energy release per unit
mass of any known reaction in physics.
 APPLICATIONS
• Medical : Medical imaging, such as positron
emission tomography (PET).
• Fuel : The reaction of 1 kg of antimatter with
1 kg of matter would produce 1.8×1017 of
energy
• Rocket propulsion purposes.
 ROCKET PROPULSION

ENERGY PET SCANNER

 PROBLEMS & DISADVANTAGES
• Cost : To produce 1 gram of antimatter, CERN
would need to spend 100 quadrillion dollars
and run the antimatter factory for 100 billion
years.
• Only 1 to 10 nano grams produced a year.
• Current trap can only store 1010 antiproton for
one week.
• For complete antimatter propulsion, 1020
antiprotons needed to be stored.
• One researcher of the
CERN laboratories, which
produces antimatter
regularly, said:

“If we could assemble all

of the antimatter we've
ever made at CERN and
annihilate it with matter,
we would have enough
energy to light a single
electric light bulb for a
few minutes. ”
 CONCLUSION
• Potential of becoming the most efficient
source of energy.
• But as the artificial production of antimatter is
expensive we still have to wait until we find it
naturally .
• In sometime in future we can hope that we
will be capable of travelling anywhere inside
our galaxy with the help of antimatter
spaceships.
 REFERENCES
• www.courses.ae.utexas.edu
• www.wiki.answers.com
• www.physorg.com
• www.cern.web.cern.ch/antimatter
• www.synergistictech.com
• www.google.com
• www.seminars123.com
• www.slideshare.com
• Angles & Demons – A novel by Dan Brown
QUESTIONS???