Possible Uses of Antimatter

 

Alex G. Miranda

    Antimatter’s existence has been publicly suggested in theories concerning the science of physics since the late XIX century. It was first called ‘negative matter’, and it wasn’t until 1898 that the scientist Arthur Schuster named it antimatter, in his book titled Nature. The existence of antimatter responds to the principle of symmetry of the universe, to which it calls for a dual nature of everything, and that everything is matter, including the forces surrounding it. Positrons, antiprotons, and neutrinos are the corresponding antimatter particles for electrons, protons and neutrons respectively. In Earth’s nature, antimatter is not present, but it is believed that there are places in universe that are completely composed of antimatter. Theoretically, if the particles of antimatter were to be mixed, the reaction would cause the particles to annihilate each other and in return it would produce an intense explosion of gamma rays. Recently, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) in its ‘Large Hadron Collider’, which is located in the Franco-Swiss border, proton-proton collisions have generated anti-hydrogen particles that were stable enough to get caught to further studies of this kind of particle, which are unavailable in our environment.

    Because of the lack of high-energy sources and the high dependence on oil in most of the countries in the world, including the United States, the human race is currently incapable of producing significant quantities of antimatter, which would require high imputes of electricity. Nevertheless, there are two ways that could change the scenario of antimatter shortage: 1- relying renewable energy sources such as Ocean-Thermal (OTEC) power plants and, 2- improvements in aerospace engineering that could lead to the establishment of particle colliders of constant operation in inner space. An OTEC power plant is a renewable-energy suggested technology of energy generation based on the difference in the temperature of surface and deep oceanic currents. A known ideal place for such a plant is at Puerto Rico’s southeast coast, specifically in Punta Tuna, Maunabo, which is two miles from the coast in where the currents of the Atlantic Ocean, both hot and cold, converge.

    Considerable quantities of antimatter could grant humankind with unexpected benefits, but also dangers. New propulsion technologies could be developed having antimatter as fuel. It is believed that one single kilogram of antimatter could produce such a explosion bigger than the Tsar Bomba, the biggest nuclear bomb to be ever developed in the world by the former Soviet Union. A relative small quantity of antimatter could then give high velocity propulsion to a space vehicle, making the humankind capable of reaching more distant places faster than now, with conventional fuels. Another possible use could be energy generation itself. If antimatter could be produced in space laboratories without consuming the energy from planet Earth, that antimatter could be used back in our planet in the same way as nuclear reactors or in new, safer technologies of energy generation that could have antimatter as fuel.

    Because of its nature, antimatter itself could be used as a weapon due to its explosive behavior when mixed with conventional matter. This is the biggest danger of a possible antimatter mass-production. As we stated before, it is believed that a single kilogram of antimatter could produce a massive explosion if mixed with a single kilogram of conventional matter and the effects of such an explosion would be more lethal than an explosion made by a nuclear bomb. Although both of the explosions emit gamma radiation, the nuclear explosion partially releases it (exclusively at the beginning of the detonation) while the antimatter explosion literally consumes matter when emitting gamma radiation along the whole detonation.

    Although there are always dangers, I believe that there are also huge benefits in the search of new and better mechanisms of antimatter mass-production. Further antimatter interest in the scientific community could trigger governments’ sponsored efforts in the development of new technologies of energy generation, superconductivity, extremely high-energy devices and even new fuels that could lead to high-speed space vehicles in the near future. I just hope that after the 20th century aftermath, the civilization has evolved enough to deal with such knowledge and that they will not use it in warfare or similar activities that could lead to mass destruction.