The first measurement of the interaction between antiproton – the antimatter equivalent of protons – has been completed by an international team of physicists working at theRelativistic Heavy Ion Collider ( RHIC)at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York .
The team , part of the STAR ( Solenoidal Tracker at RHIC ) collaboration , has chance upon that antiproton - antiproton interactions are consistent with proton - proton ones ; this is the first study to show that antiproton interaction are attractive . Antiprotons have the same mass but dissimilar electric charge to veritable protons , and understanding the subtlety of how rudimentary mote interact is a primal goal of nuclear physics .
The RHIC experimentation uses hit between two beams of gold ions that travel at the speed of light to produce new particles . The hit breaks the protons and neutrons from the atomic number 79 intoquarks , and it produces thou more particle , including antiprotons .
proton are profound particle that reside in the karyon , at the center of particle . They have positive electric heraldic bearing and they are beleaguer by neutron , which have no electric charge . Both proton and neutrons , conjointly called nucleons , are made of quarks which interact using the strong atomic force , paste the particles together and making ( most ) atoms dead static .
Thestrong nuclear forceis attractive around 1 femtometer ( 10 - 15meters ) , but it becomes abhorrent for smaller value and apace decreases to insignificance for high values . As the strong military unit is about 60 times stronger than the electromagnetic force at those scales , it is potential to have an attractive proton - proton fundamental interaction .
Antimatter is very difficult to study , as it will carry off at the first interaction with matter . So far anti - hydrogen , anti - helium , and their isotopes have been keep but this study was the first time the actual forces between nucleons were measure .
Matter and antimatter have a high degree of balance and , in cases like this , they are the exact mirror of one another . The symmetry is not perfectand the police of physics at the starting time of the universe favored topic somewhat more than antimatter , which excuse why we only remark matter around us and we have to make antimatter in laboratories . Understanding the potential and subtle difference in the behavior of antimatter could give us crucial selective information about the nature of reality .
The paper is published inNature .
