Antimatter, the evil twin?

Today we return to talk about equations, but this time, about the consequences of an equation, rather than about it. In 1928 Paul Dirac, formulated his version of the wave equation, but incorporated in it the principles of Einstein's general relativity, one of the consequences of this equation is the prediction of the existence of antimatter.

Antimatter is that evil twin of matter, which for some reason we do not know where it is, like Bart's twin in the Simpsons; the predictions of the Dirac equation indicate that, by symmetry, each particle of matter should correspond to an antiparticle.

Only four years after Dirac's formulation, Carl D. Anderson of the California Institute of Technology discovered the antielectron, or positron, a particle that is equal to the electron, but with a positive electric charge. Confirming the prediction of the Dirac equation.

Years later, in 1955, Emilio Segrè and Owen Chamberlain, at the University of Berkeley, discovered antiproton and antineutron.

Like the particles that make up matter, those of antimatter can associate and form anti-atoms, so there can be anti-hydrogen atoms, oxygen, iron, of any element.

But what makes antimatter special? Nothing is the same as matter, only that its opposite is like the reflection in the mirror of the particles that make up matter, the same but opposite, except for a small detail, if a particle and its antiparticle come to meet, they annihilate each other, giving rise to new particles and high energy radiations.

For example, suppose that our friend Pablito meets his opposite twin Otilbap, as we know Pablito is an electron, for his part Otilbap is a positron, both are almost equal, except that, Pablito, like every electron has a negative electric charge, but Otilbap has a positive charge.

What would happen if Pablito and Otilbap, both fans of Dragon Ball Z, decide, like Guku and Vegetta, to make the Fusion, after a choreography of embarrassing and elaborate movements, comes the moment when Pablito and Otilbap, touch the tips of their fingers , and unlike what happens in the series, we do not get something like a Pablibap, or an Otilblito, on the contrary; Pablito and Otilblap annihilate each other, releasing in the process a pair of high-energy photons in the form of gamma rays.

Something that leads scientists to antimatter is that, at first, when the great expansion that gave rise to our universe occurred and the particles that make up matter were created, as a result of the predictions of the equation of Dirac, the same amount of matter and antimatter must have been formed. If as it is obvious to think, they did not annihilate completely, as it should have happened and the proof of it is that you are here reading this, and instead everything that surrounds us is made of matter, what happened to the antimatter?

There are three theories, each one with its points in favor, that pretend to give an explanation to this.

1. The rate of creation of matter and antimatter were differentiated into 1 particle of matter more for every 10 billion particles of matter and antimatter created, this small difference, caused that when annihilating both, the balance would be tilted on the side of matter, to be the predominant in our universe.
2. The symmetry between matter and antimatter is not as accurate as it appears, causing the impossibility of the existence of a universe of antimatter, because physical laws would not allow it, so there was no other way to create the universe that it was not the matter, that is to say, there would be initial conditions that would make the universes of antimatter impossible.
3. This is the one that in my opinion is the most interesting, is the possibility that there are sectors of the universe formed predominantly by antimatter, we would be in a part of the universe where matter predominates, but it is possible that, adjacent to it, there are sectors, that thanks to the small population of particles that exists in the inter galactic space, are conformed by antimatter, without getting to annihilate with the matter, of the contiguous sector, at least not on a large scale, and the tendency of the galaxies to move away would It is increasingly unlikely that they will find sectors of matter and antimatter.

Today antimatter is used in applications, such as positron emission tomography, a non-invasive diagnostic tool, which unlike traditional CT scans, which use x-rays to irradiate the section of the body under study, uses the radiation in the form of gamma rays that is emitted, when the positrons that are released in the body by an isotope that is injected into the patient are annihilated, this gamma radiation is collected to assemble the image of the explored area.

There are also theoretical models of antimatter engines, which would be able to drive spacecraft in a highly efficient way. However, at the moment this type of development is not viable due to the high cost of producing and storing antimatter, how do you store something that can not have contact with matter?, the only way to do it is in powerful magnetic fields, which require more energy to maintain itself than the one that can generate the disintegration of the antimatter they contain, which makes them highly inefficient.

At present, CERN produces small quantities of antimatter for purely investigative purposes, and this is generally contained for a few minutes before disintegrating. These complications in their production and handling, make antimatter the most expensive substance that exists, reaching to be worth 62500 million American dollars, a milligram.

To finish and as a curious fact, you knew that bananas emit antimatter. The bananas, thanks to the potassium-40 in their structure, can emit on average, one positron, every 75 minutes, this as a result of the beta decay of this isotope of potassium, but the bananas are not the only ones, we own potassium-40 in our body, so we emit positrons, with some regularity, in both cases, changes and we, these positrons are annihilated when they make contact with the surrounding electrons.

So far the post, I hope it was to your liking, if so, you know what to do. Greetings and until next time.

References:

Wikipedia. Antimatter. Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Positron emission tomography. Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Paul Dirac. Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Dirac equation. Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Banana equivalent dose. Wikipedia
Wikipedia. Potassium-40. Wikipedia

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