What is Anti Matter?

Anti matter is basically the opposite of matter. In regular matter, which is predominately what makes up most of the universe, we have a neutron, a positron and an electron. (This is an atom of hydrogen) The electron carries a negative charge, the proton carries a positive charge and the neutron has no charge. This is the reason why a battery's current flows from the negative post to the positive post. When I was a kid, I was taught the opposite - positive to negative.

In an atom of anti hydrogen, the electron carries a positive charge, the proton carries a negative charge and the neutron has no charge. In this case an anti battery would flow from the positive post to the negative post.

There is still much debate as to why there is not a mixture of matter and anti matter in the universe. During and just after the Big Bang there should have been equal parts of both produced and perhaps there was. However, because matter and anti matter annihilates each other upon contact, it is theorized that there must have been slightly more matter than anti matter that was formed at this time. Following along this line of thinking, everything we see in the known universe is only a small fraction of what was originally produced. The early beginnings of our universe must have been a very chaotic time as this annihilation was taking place.
(My own theory is that this annihilation of particles may have something to do with the cause of the inflationary phase of the universe when we had the rapid expansion of space/time.) Just my theory and not something I have studied.

A Very Short History

We all know the famous formula E=MC2. Energy = Mass x The Speed of Light squared.

In 1928, the great Paul Dirac, in a paper he wrote proposed the possibility of anti electrons. He was not the person that actually coined the phrase "anti matter". The phrase came from Arthur Schuster in 1898.
In 1932, Carl D. Anderson, did actually prove its existence.
Research is ongoing in the field of anti matter and many recent experiments have been able to produce it in the laboratory. It has been known that anti matter does occur naturally in nature. Black holes and neutron stars have the ability to create a lot of matter/anti matter particles and anti matter can occur by radioactive isotope decay such as in potassium-40. Our own Van Allen radiation belt that surrounds our planet can also produce anti particles.

Why Anti Matter is Important as a Fuel Source

So why is anti matter important as a fuel source?
The short answer is that anti matter/matter interactions produce 100% efficiency.
Energy is found in all fuels that we use. From wood, coal, oils, gasoline, nuclear reactors and even nuclear bombs. Each one of these substances has a certain energy density. The process of turning these substances into energy has different efficiencies. Such things as burning gasoline in your car or a nuclear explosion is actually quite inefficient.

One of the other possible uses of these matter/anti matter reactions is to start a fusion reaction. Fusion reactions are what our Sun uses. Fusion converts hydrogen to helium which releases a lot of energy. The process keeps continuing to further and further heavier elements until the last is iron at which stage the star dies. For our sun that will be in about 4 - 5 billion years.
One of the problems with anti matter is the cost. In 2004 it costs about $60,000,000,000 (60 billion dollars) per gram of antimatter. The latest information I have is that the cost of a gram has dropped to about $25 billion. At these efficiencies it is not a practical source of energy as a gram of anti matter annihilating a gram of matter would be the same as the energy of a small atomic bomb or 43 kilotons of TNT. To put this into a different perspective, one gram of anti matter would produce enough heat to bring the oceans to boiling point.

One of the other problems is how to control these reactions. At present we can only contain anti matter particles in a perfect vacuum with a powerful magnetic field or "bottle". One atom of air in this vacuum would destroy one atom of anti matter.
From other sources I believe there is ongoing work that uses gold and lasers that produce a string of anti matter. I have also heard that the US already may have a weapon based on this technology. A small bomb the size of a grenade would have the power to incinerate an M1 tank....almost completely.
This is a terrifying prospect!

Here is the You Tube post.

1 kilogram of antimatter would produce, roughly, the equivalent of the czar bomb. It's explosive yield was approximately 50 megatons. That is 50,000,000 tons of TNT!
Yeah! "Thunderbolt and lightning, very, very frightening me" (Queen -Bohemian Rhapsody)

Like most new technologies the military industrial complex is usually the first to explore such technologies and from that we get the trickle down effects.

Although we have a fair way to go and several hurdles to over come, anti matter will become the standard means of generating energy in the near future. Let's just hope we don't annihilate ourselves in the process!

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