CERN will start transporting antimatter by trucks

Physicists from the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) are going to transport antimatter in ion traps in the truck body. This will be the first case of moving antimatter outside particle accelerators. While announced plans to transport a few hundred meters before the experiment to obtain short-lived heavy nuclei. More about the idea of ​​scientists, writes the site of the journal Nature.

Antimatter is a dual form of substance with respect to ordinary matter. From the point of view of physics, antiparticles are characterized by opposite quantum numbers, for example, the electron antipartner-positron-has a positive charge. Interaction of matter with antimatter leads to the allocation of huge energy in the form of radiation, therefore, antimatter should be stored in a non-contact way, for example, in a trap from an electromagnetic field.

Until recently, only fundamental science was interested in antimatter. However, physicists have learned to handle it so well that they are going to use it in other experiments. At first, scientists plan to investigate the properties of rare radioactive unstable nuclei, which are obtained in the ISOLDE experiment. The project was named PUMA (anti-Proton Unstable Matter Annihilation - annihilation of unstable matter by antiprotons). These nuclei will interact with antiprotons, which will provide information on the structure of such nuclei, as a rule, very rich in neutrons in comparison with stable ones. For example, physicists are interested in lithium-11, which consists of eight neutrons instead of the standard four. It is believed that two of them are not together with the rest of the nucleons, but revolve around them, forming a neutron "halo" of the nucleus.

Scientists plan to create a trap for about a billion antiprotons, which is more than 100 times greater than the number of all that existed before. The first measurements should take place in 2022. If the project turns out to be successful, it will be possible to transport antimatter over long distances.

Understanding the structure of super-rich neutrons, in turn, will allow a better understanding of the physics of neutron stars. So far, the equation of state-the pressure-density-for these objects remains unknown, which is one of the main difficulties in determining their parameters.