Question: How does the antimatter trap work?

Sameed Muhammed answered on 11 Nov 2019:

Super cool question!

We know from studying antimatter that if antimatter touches matter, they will both annihilate each other and produce a small amount of energy (E = mc^2). So the trick is to create an antimatter trap such that the antimatter will never be able to touch the walls of the trap. How do we do it? We use electricity and magnetism.

Electricity and magnetism interact with charged particles only. If the charge of a particle was zero, electricity and magnetism will have no effect on it.

In our antimatter trap, we can store trap anti-protons and anti-electrons. The electric field “pushes” a charged particle in the direction of the field (like a car on a road). The magnetic field “spins” a charged particle in circular motion (like a ball on a string, or like a child on a swing)

When we combine both of these fields, we create a very interesting path: a spiraling pendulum. The spiraling anti-electron or anti-proton will just go back and forth without ever touching the walls of the trap. You may be able to find some really cool videos of this online!

I hope this makes some sense. Feel free to ask a follow-up question for more details 🙂