The concept of the antiparticle to matter: Antimatter

What is Antimatter ?

In particle physics, antimatter is the extension of the concept of the antiparticle to matter, where antimatter is composed of antiparticles in the same way that normal matter is composed of particles. For example, an antielectron (a positron, an electron with a positive charge) and an antiproton (a proton with a negative charge) could form an antihydrogen atom in the same way that an electron and a proton form a normal matter hydrogen atom. Furthermore, mixing matter and antimatter would lead to the annihilation of both in the same way that mixing antiparticles and particles does, thus giving rise to high-energy photons (gamma rays) or other particle–antiparticle pairs.

There is considerable speculation as to why the observable universe is apparently almost entirely matter, whether there exist other places that are almost entirely antimatter instead, and what might be possible if antimatter could be harnessed, but at this time the apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. The process of developing particles and antiparticles is called baryogenesis.[…]

Recent research activities and developments on Anti-matter:

• Billions Of Particles Of Anti-matter Created In Laboratory: 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."[1]
• CU-Boulder Researchers Involved In Novel Universe Creation Experiment: More than a dozen faculty and students from the University of Colorado at Boulder are part of an international team that has launched an unprecedented experiment in an attempt to explain how the universe's matter came to exist.[2]
• Why Matter Matters In The Universe: A new physics discovery explores why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe. The paper reveals that investigation into the process of B-meson decays has given insight into why there is more matter than antimatter in the universe.[3]
• Physicists Test Theory That Explains Why Universe Is Made Of Matter: Physicists are analyzing data from an experiment that tests a theory that won a share of this year's Nobel Prize in Physics. The theory and the data help explain why the universe is made of matter.[4]
• Tracking Down Origin Of Matter And Antimatter: In science fiction stories it is either the inexhaustible energy source of the future or a superweapon of galactic magnitude: antimatter. In fact, antimatter can neither be found naturally in any abundance on Earth nor in space, is extremely complex to produce and thus difficult to study. In order to track down the origin of matter and antimatter in the universe, scientists are measuring the power of the electrical dipole moment of neutrons, which represents a measure for the different physical properties of matter and antimatter.[5]