MOTHER OF ALL BATTLES

Figure-(http://livefromcern.web.cern.ch/livefromcern/antimatter/)


The battle between good and evil is the theme of every mythology, religion and folklore. Even the modern human history is interpreted in a similar way, though it is often hard to recognize who is who. Probably, it is an inherent human engineering aspect that we wish to see everything in pairs with contrast. We have plenty of such pairs as in ‘Good and Evil’, ‘God and Satan’-the list continues. Not only have we graciously accepted the existence of these pairs in contrast, we also would like to see the ‘good’ to win over the ‘evil’. It seems like the most logical thought of humankind, Science, is also not an exception. In particle physics, “every particle has a corresponding antiparticle”. While the particles like electrons, protons and neutrons make the ordinary matter, their antiparticles such as positrons, antiproton and antineutron make antimatter. So it is logically sequential to imagine about the existence of any anti- entity such as antiplanet or antihuman. However, the existence of any such anti matter is ruled out at least in this Universe, because expectedly, yet surprisingly the matter won over the antimatter in the battle of existence that occurred 13.7 billion years ago. The after of effect of that battle is what we call CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background radiation) , which established ‘Big Bang’ as the most acceptable theory for the origin of the Universe.
‘Angels and Demons’ is a movie released in 2009, based on Dan Brown’s novel by the same name. The mystery novel depicts the life of a secret group called Illuminati. Portrayed in the background of the historic conflict between Science and Religion, the novel describes the efforts of Illuminati to destroy Vatican City using antimatter, for revenging the atrocities carried out on them by the Catholic Church. Even though the existence of antimatter is true, the biggest particle accelerators in the world have been able to create only handful of anti particles. In fact, CERN and Femi Lab have produced anti particles including the anti-hydrogen atoms, but that is not even close to any measurable amount. As of now, the antimatter particles are considered to be the most expensive particles to produce, with the cost estimated to be $62.5 trillion a gram. Given the cost of production and the non-existent storing techniques, these particles would linger as almost illusive, at least for the near future. Yet, the word antimatter provokes excitement in both science and fiction.
The matter-antimatter annihilation produces pure energy in the most efficient way known to us. This remarkable energy formation from a nearly negligible amount of matter is the main cause of its appeal to the real world and also to the fiction writers. According to Einstein’s equation, E=mc^2, the mutual annihilation of 1 kg of each matter and antimatter can produce the energy which is equivalent to that of the most powerful nuclear bomb ever tested, that in turn uses hundreds of kilograms of nuclear material. This claim is based on the experimental evidence that the electron and its antiparticle positron annihilate each other resulting in the production of energy, mainly in the form of gamma rays. However, the mutual annihilation of heavier particles like protons and its anti particle (anti proton) is more complicated as it produces exotic particles like neutrinos along with energy production. Contrary to popular belief, the energy production of matter-antimatter annihilation is a more complex phenomenon than the relatively straight forward annihilation of electron-positron pair.

The practical complications involved in harnessing the energy from the matter-antimatter annihilation have never dispirited the scientists in their hunt for this rather magical energy. In fact, NASA has been actively pursuing this technique of energy production as a possible future rocket fuel. They envision an unlimited supply of energy from such a small amount of material that could propel the rockets to planets and stars, much beyond our destinations of the past. The future mars mission plan of NASA would depend on this, though currently it is a hypothetical situation. Please see the link:
http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/home/antimatter_spaceship.html
The brain scanning procedure known as PET (Positron Emission Tomography) employs the electron-positron annihilation to reveal the workings of the brain. This illustrates that the existence of antiparticles is not only just true, but we can even control and direct this energy for our advantage. The positron created by radioactive decay process is used to annihilate an electron in the atom of the brain and thus rendering an image of the brain on the screen.

Though everyone agrees the existence of the antiparticles now, this was not the case 80 years back, when it was predicted for the first time. Paul Dirac, one of the pioneers of Quantum Physics, had conducted extensive study on the mathematical equations associated with the existence of fundamental particles, came upon a rather strange situation. In 1928 Dirac predicted the possibility of an antiworld similar to that of our world but made up of antiparticles, a new radical idea in particle Physics. Two years later, Carl Anderson at the California Institute of Technology while examining the tracks created by cosmic rays confirmed the existence of positrons-the anti particle of electrons. However, it took 22 years of investigation to discover the antiproton and four years later antineutrons were found. It was in 1995, that the first antihydrogen atom was created at the CERN, executing the knowledge already gained through earlier experiments conducted at the Fermi lab. It is assumed that the coming years will see the production of antimatter in larger quantities along with the complicated storing technique of this mysterious matter. This century might witness a spaceship propelling to distant planets using the energy created by the matter-antimatter annihilation something similar to that of star ship Enterprise.

The Standard cosmology theory suggests that the Universe began with equal amount of matter and antimatter, like the twins of Big Bang. However, in the early universe this super symmetry was broken, for unknown reasons, which led to the dominance of matter in this Universe. This is one of the unsolved mysteries in Science, and is known as the Baryon asymmetry problem in Physics. Assuming that there was equal amount of matter and antimatter in the early Universe, their mutual destruction would have caused the complete absence of any matter in the Universe. The whole Universe would have been filled with energy (light) created in that process. The fact is that matter dominates in our Universe, and there is hardly any evidence of antimatter present except for they are created by Cosmic rays or in particle accelerators. One possible solution to this puzzle is that there exists a Universe with matter dominance (we call our Universe), and the other with antimatter dominance, without any interaction between them. This explanation is unlikely as the scientific research of the last decades offers no solutions in that direction. None of the existing theories are capable of providing an explanation of the matter supremacy in our Universe. The only optimism at this time is the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which will shed some light into the broken symmetry that happened in the early Universe, when it will operate again in coming months.
As the infant Universe began its existence 13.7 billion years ago, the four fundamental forces separated from the super forces existed prior to that event. The hot and dense Universe inflated and cooled for a fraction of a second .This was followed by the radiation era ,when particles and anti particles annihilated each other to create radiation (photons).These photons ,the ‘relic of the Big Bang’ coupled with matter, were unable to escape since they were trapped in the Universe. The battle of existence continued between matter and antimatter and that created more photons. At some point, the matter particles exceeded the antimatter particles about one part per billion. As the dominant matter particles became stable, they lost interest in the ongoing coupling with the photons, which were born out of the battle waged between matter and antimatter. Now, these photons could travel through the expanding Universe bearing the mark of the violent history of the early Universe. These photons, currently existing in the microwave region of electromagnetic spectrum known as CMB, were finally detected by Penzias and Wilson in 1964.
This was the battle won by the matter that caused the creation of stars and planets; needless to say the cause of our own creation. As in the recorded human history the battle waged between two rivals give rise to the creation of a new realm, the first ever battle between matter and antimatter gave way to the Universe as we know it, so we call it ‘Mother of All Battles’.




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