Douglas T. Young
Department of Physics
Mercer University

Wednesday, Feb 2, 2005, 4:30 pm
Willet Science Center 101

Antimatter Containment

Antimatter has been a staple of science fiction since its discovery in the early 1930s.  The subatomic constituents of antimatter, positrons and antiprotons, have been used in science for a variety of purposes.  In solid state physics, positrons (antielectrons) are used to probe the structure of solids, while particle physicists collide antiprotons and protons to study the fundamental properties of matter.  Only recently have antiprotons and positrons been combined to form an antihydrogen atom.  Since then, there has been considerable interest in developing traps that could simultaneously confine both antiprotons and positrons to form collections of antihydrogen atoms.  There is also a continuing interest in developing better traps for confining single-species antimatter plasmas (i.e. positrons or antiprotons).  In this talk, the principles used in trapping single species antimatter plasmas will be examined.  Proposed traps to simultaneously confine both positrons and antiprotons will also be discussed.  The talk will end with a brief exposition of the work being done here at Mercer in this area.