A Canadian-led investigation involving York researchers has opened a new chapter in antimatter research.
In a study published in Nature today (Aug. 3), the ALPHA Collaboration – a group of international physicists including physics Professor Scott Menary in the Faculty of Science at York University – reported the first detailed observation of spectral lines from an antimatter atom.
A Canadian-led investigation involving York researchers has opened a new chapter in antimatter research.
In a study published in Nature today (Aug. 3), the ALPHA Collaboration – a group of international physicists including physics Professor Scott Menary in the Faculty of Science at York University – reported the first detailed observation of spectral lines from an antimatter atom.
“Spectral lines are like fingerprints,” said lead author Michael Hayden, a Simon Fraser University physics professor. “Every element has its own unique pattern.”
There is one possible exception: matter and antimatter are believed to be mirror images of one another, and so the spectral lines of antimatter atoms should be precisely the same as those of their normal atom counterparts. Until now, however, scientists have only had glimpses of antimatter spectral lines, and comparisons with normal matter spectral lines have been coarse.
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Photo via York University.
