Antimatter bullets get fast and cheap

• Autores: Katia Moskvitch
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 2923, 2013, pág. 10
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • A tabletop device just 10 square meters in size can spit out energetic bursts of positrons as dense as those kicked out by the giant particle-factories at CERN. Each positron-packed bullet lasts for just a fraction of a second, so don't expect to fill the tank of an antimatter engine any time soon. Instead, the smaller, cheaper machine might help labs around the world study deep-space objects such as powerful radiation jets squirted out by black holes. Huge machines at particle physics labs, such as CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, have been churning but antimatter for over a decade. But it is an expensive pursuit that, for CERN, requires a 190-meter-long track. Instead, Gianluca Sarri at Queen's University Belfast, UK, and colleagues used rapid laser bursts to make positrons in their smaller, budget device. The laser pulse ionizes inert helium gas, generating a stream of high-speed electrons. This electron beam is