An experiment by scientists from CERN made it possible to establish how antimatter reacts to gravity
In the course of another experiment with antimatter, engineers from CERN found out that antimatter under the influence of gravitational forces behaves in the same way as all of us familiar matter. It is about this unusual experiment and its equally unusual results that will be discussed.
Antimatter and its unusual properties
As you know, antimatter is inherently similar to ordinary matter, but it contains one small, but very important difference: the particles of antimatter have the opposite electric charge.
And this "small" difference leads to the fact that whenever particles of matter and antimatter meet, they are annihilated.
According to the theory generally accepted today, our Universe appeared as a result of the so-called The Big Bang, as a result of which an equal amount of both ordinary matter and antimatter.
And it turns out that in the end all matter and antimatter should have been annihilated. But the very fact that you and I exist suggests that some mechanism in the Universe caused an imbalance and matter turned out to be significantly greater than antimatter.
For this reason, physicists are most closely engaged in the study of antimatter in order to reveal any other differences (except for various charge) to find an explanation for the imbalance that has arisen, despite the fact that, according to the Standard Model, there simply should not be any other difference be. And if scientists manage to detect this difference, then this will open up a completely new physics.
New experiment with antimatter and its results
Therefore, scientists decided to conduct another experiment and establish how antimatter reacts to gravity. The difficulty of conducting such a seemingly simple experiment lies in the fact that almost all the time antimatter is in suspended in special electromagnetic traps that do not allow antimatter to come into contact with matter and thus annihilate.
Therefore, in order to still carry out the experiment, scientists decided to place antiprotons and negatively charged hydrogen ions in the so-called Penning trap.
Once inside this "trap", particles of matter and antimatter move along a cyclic trajectory and, by measuring their frequency, scientists can determine their charge-to-mass ratio.
In theory, with the same response to gravity, this ratio should be absolutely the same, but if there is the difference is fixed, this will mean that antimatter reacts to gravity differently than substance.
So, as the experiment showed, antimatter and matter react to gravity in exactly the same way. At least, this statement is true within the uncertainty of the set experiment, which is within 97% of the rendered gravitational acceleration experienced by the particles.
In addition, the scientists claim that their experiment is at least four times more accurate than other previously conducted experiments.
Well, it turns out that if you "throw" a kilogram of anti-stone, then it will fall to the ground in the same way as an ordinary cobblestone, and will not fly away from the ground.
But this does not mean that the study of antimatter is no longer worth doing. After all, who knows what unique properties may appear as a result of other experiments.
Scientists shared the results of this experience on the pages of the publication Nature.
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