How to catch a neutrino? Why did not the universe exist? And how much is the antimatter?
Not far from Tokyo, deep underground, a place could be the birthplace of any other fairy villain. There is installed a giant 50-ton stainless steel tank, specially filled with purified water. Interestingly, if you drop a wrench into this giant tank, for example, after a while it will dissolve. But even in such a place people work.
THE NON-CONTINUOUS PARTICLE
The neutrino detector hid at a depth of 1 kilometer. This is a kind of observatory, only they study in it not the planets, but the most mysterious element in space - the neutrino. These are ghostly particles, the sources of which are stars, including the Sun. Look at your palm: trillions of neutrinos pass through it every second. They penetrate almost everywhere, unimpededly overcome giant distances and deliver to Earth information about the most interesting processes, "witnesses" of which they were several minutes or several billion years ago. That is why today the neutrino is an object of studying powerful scientific laboratories around the world.
When a plane overcomes the sound barrier at high speed, as it was with Concord, a shock wave forms behind it. Similarly, the neutrino, moving faster than the speed of light, creates a wave, but a light one.
NEUTRINO SHOTS
These waves are caught 11 thousand extremely light-sensitive "bulbs" - photomultipliers. In order for light to reach the sensors, the water in the reservoir of the observatory must be crystal clear. Even too clean: after a multi-level cleaning, including ultraviolet irradiation, the liquid acquires the properties of acid and alkali. In this pool you can not swim. Scientists descend into the reservoir on boats and in special suits similar to those worn by cosmonauts. However, the study of neutrinos is directly connected with the study of outer space.
According to the theory, the Big Bang spawned an equal amount of matter and antimatter. As is known, when they meet, they destroy each other, leaving behind only pure energy. Therefore, theoretically you and I should not exist.
MATTER AGAINST ANTIMATERY
The universe began without stars, atoms, shape and structure. The big explosion became a starting point for the emergence of time: it formed galaxies, star systems, planets. In theory, every material particle that the Explosion has generated has a double-antiparticle of the opposite charge. For some reason, the particle at the time of the origin of the universe was slightly more than antiparticles, which led to the emergence of all things. Scientists are trying to find out the reason for this asymmetry. Perhaps experiments with neutrinos - the least explored particle so far - will reveal the veil of secrecy. For the same purpose, physicists periodically try to create antimatter artificially - at the Large Hadron Collider. This giant particle accelerator plunges into the horror of skeptics and fans of fantastic literature.
But there is nothing to be afraid of. The cost of producing antimatter strongly inhibits such experiments. The creation of just 1 milligram of positrons costs about 25 million dollars. No wonder antimatter is included in the list of the most expensive substances in the world along with plutonium and diamonds.