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Science Daily — Physicists at UC Riverside have created molecular positronium, an entirely new object in the laboratory. Briefly stable, each molecule is made up of a pair of electrons and a pair of their antiparticles, called positrons.
The research paves the way for studying multi-positronium interactions -- useful for generating coherent gamma radiation -- and could one day help develop fusion power generation as well as directed energy weapons such as gamma-ray lasers. It also could help explain how the observable universe ended up with so much more matter than "antimatter."
The researchers made the positronium molecules by firing intense bursts of positrons into a thin film of porous silica, which is the chemical name for the mineral quartz. Upon slowing down in silica, the positrons were captured by ordinary electrons to form positronium atoms.
Positronium atoms, by nature, are extremely short-lived. But those positronium atoms that stuck to the internal pore surfaces of silica, the way dirt particles might cling to the inside surface of the holes in a sponge, lived long enough to interact with one another to form molecules of positronium, the physicists found.
"Silica acts in effect like a useful cage, trapping positronium atoms," said David Cassidy, the lead author of the research paper and an assistant researcher working in the laboratory of Allen Mills, a professor of physics, the research paper's coauthor. "This is the first step in our experiments. What we hope to achieve next is to get many more of the positronium atoms to interact simultaneously with one another -- not just two positronium atoms at a time."
When an electron meets a positron, their mutual annihilation may ensue or positronium, a briefly stable, hydrogen-like atom, may be formed. The stability of a positronium atom is threatened again when the atom collides with another positronium atom. Such a collision of two positronium atoms can result in their annihilation, accompanied by the production of a powerful and energetic type of electromagnetic radiation called gamma radiation, or the creation of a molecule of positronium, the kind Cassidy and Mills observed in their lab.
"Their research is giving us new ways to understand matter and antimatter," said Clifford M. Surko, a professor of physics at UC San Diego, who was not involved in the research. "It also provides novel techniques to create even larger collections of antimatter that will likely lead to new science and, potentially, to important new technologies."
Matter, the "stuff" that every known object is made of, and antimatter cannot co-exist close to each other for more than a very small measure of time because they annihilate each other to release enormous amounts of energy in the form of gamma radiation. The apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is an unsolved problem in physics.
Currently, antimatter finds use in medicine where it helps identify diseases with the Positron Emission Tomography or PET scan.
Cassidy and Mills plan to work next on using a more intense positron source to generate a "Bose-Einstein condensate" of positronium -- a collection of positronium atoms that are in the same quantum state, allowing for more interactions and gamma radiation. According to them, such a condensate would be necessary for the development of a gamma-ray laser.
Study results appear in the Sept. 13 issue of Nature.
Their research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of California - Riverside.
The researchers made the positronium molecules by firing intense bursts of positrons into a thin film of porous silica, which is the chemical name for the mineral quartz. Upon slowing down in silica, the positrons were captured by ordinary electrons to form positronium atoms.
Positronium atoms, by nature, are extremely short-lived. But those positronium atoms that stuck to the internal pore surfaces of silica, the way dirt particles might cling to the inside surface of the holes in a sponge, lived long enough to interact with one another to form molecules of positronium, the physicists found.
"Silica acts in effect like a useful cage, trapping positronium atoms," said David Cassidy, the lead author of the research paper and an assistant researcher working in the laboratory of Allen Mills, a professor of physics, the research paper's coauthor. "This is the first step in our experiments. What we hope to achieve next is to get many more of the positronium atoms to interact simultaneously with one another -- not just two positronium atoms at a time."
When an electron meets a positron, their mutual annihilation may ensue or positronium, a briefly stable, hydrogen-like atom, may be formed. The stability of a positronium atom is threatened again when the atom collides with another positronium atom. Such a collision of two positronium atoms can result in their annihilation, accompanied by the production of a powerful and energetic type of electromagnetic radiation called gamma radiation, or the creation of a molecule of positronium, the kind Cassidy and Mills observed in their lab.
"Their research is giving us new ways to understand matter and antimatter," said Clifford M. Surko, a professor of physics at UC San Diego, who was not involved in the research. "It also provides novel techniques to create even larger collections of antimatter that will likely lead to new science and, potentially, to important new technologies."
Matter, the "stuff" that every known object is made of, and antimatter cannot co-exist close to each other for more than a very small measure of time because they annihilate each other to release enormous amounts of energy in the form of gamma radiation. The apparent asymmetry of matter and antimatter in the visible universe is an unsolved problem in physics.
Currently, antimatter finds use in medicine where it helps identify diseases with the Positron Emission Tomography or PET scan.
Cassidy and Mills plan to work next on using a more intense positron source to generate a "Bose-Einstein condensate" of positronium -- a collection of positronium atoms that are in the same quantum state, allowing for more interactions and gamma radiation. According to them, such a condensate would be necessary for the development of a gamma-ray laser.
Study results appear in the Sept. 13 issue of Nature.
Their research was funded by the National Science Foundation.
Note: This story has been adapted from a news release issued by University of California - Riverside.
Fausto Intilla
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2 commenti:
carbon management is legislated in the USA. Carbon must have a fair price, that fair price and the changes in the view of how the soil carbon cycle now can be used as a massive sink verses it now being viewed as a wash, will be of particular value to farmers and a global cool breath of fresh air for us all.
If you have any other questions please feel free to call me or visit the TP web site I've been drafted to co-administer. http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org/?q=node
It has been immensely gratifying to see all the major players join the mail list , Cornell folks, T. Beer of Kings Ford Charcoal (Clorox), Novozyne the M-Roots guys(fungus), chemical engineers, Dr. Danny Day of EPRIDA , Dr. Antal of U. of H., Virginia Tech folks and probably many others who's back round I don't know have joined.
Also Here is the Latest BIG Terra Preta Soil news;
ConocoPhillips Establishes $22.5 Million Pyrolysis Program at Iowa State 04/10/07
Mechabolic , a pyrolysis machine built in the form of a giant worm to eat solid waste and product char & fuel at the "Burning Man" festival ; http://whatiamupto.com/mechabolic/index.html
Erich J. Knight
540-289-9750
shengar at aol.com
I thought your readers would be interested in looking at these energy technologies and EPS's theoretic base for ball lighting.
Aneutronic Fusion: Here I am not talking about the big science ITER project taking thirty years, but the several small alternative plasma fusion efforts.
There are three companies pursuing hydrogen-boron plasma toroid fusion, Paul Koloc, Prometheus II, Eric Lerner, Focus Fusion and Clint Seward of Electron Power Systems
Vincent Page (a technology officer at GE!!) gave a presentation at the 05 6th symposium on current trends in international fusion research , which high lights the need to fully fund three different approaches to P-B11 fusion
He quotes costs and time to development of P-B11 Fusion as tens of million $, and years verses the many decades and ten Billion plus $ projected for ITER and other "Big" science efforts
Here are the links:
http://www.electronpowersystems.com/
U.S., Chilean Labs to Collaborate on Testing Scientific Feasibility of Focus Fusion http://pesn.com/2006/03/18/9600250_LPP_Chilean_Nuclear_Commission/
However, short of a Energy "silver bullet" like fusion , Here is a fully DOABLE technology
Time to Master the Carbon Cycle with Terra Preta Soil Technology;
The integrated energy strategy offered by Charcoal based Terra Preta Soil technology may
provide the only path to sustain our agricultural and fossil fueled power
structure without climate degradation, other than nuclear power.
The economics look good, and truly great if we had CO2 cap & trade in place:
Terra Preta soils I feel has great possibilities to revolutionize sustainable agriculture into a major CO2 sequestration strategy.
I thought the current news and links on Terra Preta soils and closed-loop pyrolysis would interest you.
SCIAM Article May 15 07
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=5670236C-E7F2-99DF-3E2163B9FB144E40
After many years of reviewing solutions to anthropogenic global warming (AGW) I believe this technology can manage Carbon for the greatest collective benefit at the lowest economic price, on vast scales. It just needs to be seen by ethical globally minded companies.
Even with all the big corporations coming to the GHG negotiation table, like Exxon, Alcoa, .etc, we still need to keep watch as they try to influence how carbon management is legislated in the USA
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