Does antimatter really exist? How expensive is it? Will it be used by bad guys to destroy humanity?

I have talked about the issue of antimatter many times in the past, but there are still many friends who question it. The main reasons are as follows: 1. Does antimatter really exist? 2. How much energy does antimatter have? 3. Is antimatter expensive? How much is it worth? 4. Will terrorists use antimatter to harm society and humanity?

Today, Space-Time Communications will discuss this issue with netizens to clarify it.

First, let’s talk about what antimatter is and whether it really exists?

Simply put, the common substances we see are all positive substances, which are composed of atoms. Atoms are composed of atomic nuclei and extranuclear electrons, and the atomic nuclei are composed of protons and neutrons. Each proton in the atomic nucleus carries 1 unit of positive charge, and neutrons carry no charge; the number of extranuclear electrons corresponds to the number of protons in the atomic nucleus, that is, there is one extranuclear electron for every proton, and each electron carries 1 unit of negative charge.

In this way, the positive charge of the nucleus and the negative charge of the electrons cancel each other out, and the atom exists in an electrically neutral manner. If an atom or atomic group loses or gains one or more electrons, it forms charged particles called ions. Ions that lose electrons outside the nucleus are positively charged, so they are called positive ions; ions that gain electrons outside the nucleus are negatively charged, so they are called negative ions.

Antimatter is also made up of atoms, but the charge of the nucleus and the electrons outside the nucleus are exactly opposite to that of positive matter, that is, the nucleus is negatively charged and the electrons outside the nucleus are positively charged. Among subatomic particles, antiprotons are negatively charged and antielectrons are positively charged, that is, positrons.

Antimatter and matter exist independently. If they don't collide, nothing will happen. But if they collide, they will become incompatible and explode like water and fire. They will disappear after a flash. This phenomenon is called annihilation, and huge energy will be released at the same time.

As early as 1928, Paul Dirac, a Nobel Prize winner in physics and a British physicist, predicted that every particle should have an antiparticle, such as an anti-electron, which has the same mass but opposite electrical properties and spin quantum numbers. Therefore, Dirac is considered to be the first scientist to propose the concept of antimatter.

Later scientific discoveries confirmed Dirac's prediction, and antimatter is widely present in the universe, and even gathers in large quantities in certain special areas. Antimatter is also widely present in the natural world around us. For example, potassium-40 exists in the human body. This unstable isotope releases positrons. Bananas also contain a small amount of potassium-40. A banana releases one positron every 75 minutes, and can release 19 positrons a day.

As soon as these positrons are born, they annihilate with the negative electrons in the countless positive matter in our world, so this little "antimatter" cannot make any waves. You should know that there are 2.6875×10^19 molecules (about 2.7 trillion) in 1 cubic centimeter of air. The main gas molecules in the air are oxygen and nitrogen. Each oxygen molecule has 16 negative electrons, and each nitrogen molecule has 14 negative electrons.

In 1995, the European Organization for Nuclear Research produced the world's first batch of antihydrogen atoms in its laboratory; after that, many laboratories in the world have produced various antiparticles, such as negative protons and positrons; in 2011, Chinese and American scientists cooperated to produce the heaviest antimatter to date - the antihelium 4 atom.

It can be seen that the question of whether antimatter exists is no longer a problem. It does exist in our world and can be artificially created. However, so far, the antimatter discovered and created by humans is still at the atomic or subatomic particle level, and the whole piece of antimatter that can be seen by human eyes has not yet been discovered.

Now let’s talk about how big the energy of antimatter is?

Antimatter is the substance that can theoretically explode with the greatest energy so far, and can only be converted strictly following Einstein's mass-energy equation: E=MC^2. Here E is energy, in units of J (joule); M is the mass of the substance, in units of kg (kilogram); C is the speed of light in a vacuum, in units of m (meter).

Einstein's mass-energy equation is one of the greatest discoveries of mankind in the 20th century. Although this formula is very simple, it interprets a profound truth: mass and energy can be converted into each other and are equivalent, and there is a definite equivalence relationship between them.

But it is not easy to convert mass into energy. The greatest mass-energy conversion technologies currently mastered by humans are nuclear fission and nuclear fusion. The mass-energy conversion rate of nuclear fission is about 0.13%, and the mass-energy conversion rate of nuclear fusion is about 0.7%. This seemingly pitiful conversion rate can produce amazing energy, such as atomic bomb explosions and hydrogen bomb explosions, which perfectly verify the correctness of the mass-energy equation.

The annihilation of antimatter and matter occurs instantly, converting 100% of the mass of matter into energy, without any waste or leftover, so it is called a perfect conversion of mass and energy. Moreover, 1 gram of antimatter must be completely annihilated with 1 gram of matter, so that the result of annihilation of 1 part of antimatter can actually produce double the mass of energy.

According to Einstein's mass-energy equation, when 1kg of antimatter and 1kg of matter collide, they can generate 1.8*10^17J of energy. How much energy is this? It is equivalent to 50 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, or about 43.02 million tons of explosives. This is the power of more than 3,300 Hiroshima atomic bombs exploding at the same time.

From this, we can conclude that the energy produced by the annihilation of 1 gram of antimatter and 1 gram of matter is approximately 50 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, or the explosive power of 3.3 Hiroshima atomic bombs, which cannot be underestimated.

How expensive is artificial antimatter?

It can be said that there is no substance in the world that is more valuable than antimatter. Because so far, all the antimatter produced by scientists around the world over the past few decades is still at the atomic level, and can only be barely seen as a fuzzy shadow under an electron microscope, and cannot be seen by the human eye.

For example, Fermilab used a trillion electron volt accelerator and mobilized a lot of scientific and technological resources and energy for 26 years, but the total amount of antiprotons produced was only 15 nanograms, or 1.5 hundred millionths of a gram. The total amount of antimatter such as antihydrogen atoms, antiprotons, and antielectrons produced by all laboratories around the world did not exceed 20 nanograms.

The cost of producing antimatter is incalculable, because a large number of scientists have spent decades burning money to produce such a small amount of antiparticles. The research funds spent can be estimated, but the precious energy spent by scientists is priceless. If we only calculate the energy consumption of producing antimatter, we can see how expensive it is.

Experts have calculated that based on the current electricity consumed in producing antimatter, it takes 2.5*10^16 kWh (kWh) to produce 1 gram of antimatter. If each kWh is calculated at 1 yuan, the electricity bill will be 250 trillion yuan, which is about 360 trillion yuan in US dollars. The total GDP of the world in 2021 is only about 94 trillion, of which the United States is about 23 trillion and China is about 18 trillion. In other words, if the whole world does not eat or drink and tightens its belt to produce antimatter, it will take 38 years to produce 1 gram.

Therefore, nothing in the world is more expensive than antimatter.

Will antimatter be used by terrorists to destroy humanity?

I think that, at least in the foreseeable future, no one has the conditions to use antimatter to destroy the world. The reason is as mentioned above, antimatter is too difficult to make and too expensive. Even the richest people in the world can hardly get 1 gram of antimatter. The energy obtained by annihilating 1 gram of antimatter is equivalent to several Hiroshima atomic bombs. This amount of energy can cause great damage to a certain area, but it is far from enough to destroy the entire human race.

At present, the total amount of artificial antimatter in the world is less than 20 nanograms. How much energy will be generated by the annihilation of all this antimatter? According to the mass-energy equation, the energy generated by the annihilation of this antimatter with the same amount of positive matter is only 3,600,000 J, which is exactly 1 kWh, which can only boil a small cup of water.

Moreover, antimatter is not only very difficult to produce, but also very difficult to preserve. Because our world is full of positive matter, antimatter will annihilate once it comes into contact with any matter in the world, including air. In order to preserve the little bit of antimatter particles that are hard to obtain for a longer period of time, scientists have racked their brains to come up with many ways.

The most important method is to use the electric or magnetic properties of antimatter to create a magnetic trap, or magnetic bottle, to confine the antimatter in various magnetic field traps. The magnetic trap is highly vacuum and extremely cold. This kind of cold is not the kind of cold we are used to, but as cold as minus 272.65 degrees Celsius, which is very close to absolute zero.

Antiparticles are trapped in this "prison" that is neither above nor below the ground and is extremely difficult for even gas molecules to encounter. The cold reduces the activity of their vibration frequency and keeps them at a low energy level, so they can only stay there obediently and be preserved relatively long.

Can terrorists obtain, manufacture and preserve such extremely rare, expensive and difficult-to-use antimatter? Therefore, whether it is terrorists or some belligerent countries, in the foreseeable future, it is just a pipe dream to use antimatter to threaten and endanger society and humanity.

Of course, just because antimatter is not practical now does not mean it will always be the case in the future. Today’s technological civilization is developing at a rapid pace, and antimatter is the most ideal and perfect clean energy, which is definitely the goal that humans have always dreamed of. According to some studies and predictions, in the future, if wormholes or space-time folding technology are used to achieve superluminal interstellar travel, antimatter and anti-energy must be used.

These goals are likely to be achieved by our descendants. If you have any opinions on this, please feel free to discuss and comment.

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