Antihydrogen atoms confined for 1000 seconds

[Giorgio]

Via Physorg:
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-05-cer ... atoms.html

The paper is here:
http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1104/1104.4982.pdf

Don't expect any matter-antimatter engine anytime soon, but this new approach to antimatter confinement is still extremely cool.

Being able to control and store anti-hydrogen will also open a whole plethora of possibilities in understanding why we are made of matter instead of antimatter.

[Aero]

Extremely cool!
Seventeen minutes is enough time to do some real world fiddling with the stuff if you have your apparatus all ready ahead of time. And 17 minutes is a precursor to long time spans. Hours and days!

[Nik]

IIRC, one of the planned experiments will check that antimatter falls *down*...

This isn't quite as daft a notion as it sounds...
http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-ant ... nsion.html

"When you reverse the equations of general relativity in charge, parity and time for either the particle or the field the particle is traveling in, the result is a change of sign in the gravity term, implying so-called antigravity between the two."

Or not, as the case may be...

[Giorgio]

Whether they will find it falling down or find some unexpected results, these experiments will deeply change the way we see the universe we live in.
Can't wait to see some real results!