Antihydrogen production

Antihydrogen production

The constituents of antihydrogen, namely an antiproton and a positron, have to be produced in complicated time- and energy-consuming processes. And even when the physicists have collected some antiprotons and positrons these have to be brought together to recombine, which is complicated, too. Up to now, nobody has solved the latter problem.

In the PS210 experiment another process has been chosen. When a antiproton (red) circulating in an accelerator passes a heavy target-nucleus (green), e.g. Xenon, close enough, electron-positron pairs (blue) are produced accidently.

                    PS210 Logo

If an electron-positron pair has been created, which as said above is a very rare process, then in even more rare cases it is possible that the antiproton catches the positron.


And then Antihydrogen is produced.


The probability for this is 0.000 000 000 000 000 01 %


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