The Rarity of Antimatter:
The search for the illusive
a report by:
RAdm. RM & FComm. DL Wey
COSR: SFS - SFC DCOSR: SFS - SFC
F
or nearly a century, the existence of antimatter has been a given, alas, though such be so…the scientific world has only found a very small amount of it. Instead of the vast quantities expected, only the positron[the positively charged opposite of an electron]has been observed as a entity of fact.By the use of particle accelerators, scientists have created antiprotons, as well as antihydrogen [the merging positrons and antiprotons] but only for the briefest of moments. Currently, ever more sophisticated equipment is being used in the effort to detect such antiparticles, mostly through the study of cosmic rays.
It is through these experiments that the search for antimatter goes on, with the hope of perhaps finding antistars as well as antigalaxies. It is believed that the creation of such entities would be caused by the violent collisions of subatomic particles in interstellar space.
As explained in our previous report, observations of the Sagittarian galaxies apparent orbit through our galaxy[as well as its subsequent survival](see OSR0799]tie into the antimatter problem as a source of ‘dark matter’. One such possibility for the high number of ‘high - energy’ positrons observed in earth’s upper atmosphere is equated to the ‘WIMP’[Weakly Interacting Massive Particle]. A theoretical particle no yet observed.
Detectors such as the Isotope Matter Antimatter Experiment [or IMAX], as well as a host of others, continue in an ever increasing effort to locate antiparticles. And though modern cosmology considers the possibility, the reality is perhaps something else again. For these search for antimatter in the cosmos has gone through many changes since its inception during this century, and hunting for them many be a futile task. Yet the search for these entities may shed light on the search for dark matter, and that
would be something indeed.