B.V.BHOOMARADDI COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPT.OF MECHANICAL ENGG.

PAPER PRESENTATIONON

NON CONVENTIONAL SOURCES OF ENERGYANTI MATTER-THE ULTIMATE ENERGY

BY

VIKRAM G.KORALHALLI6TH SEM

MECHANICAL DEPARTMENTB.V.B COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

& TECHNOLOGY.HUBLI.

E-Mail: vikram.mav@gmail.com

RAVI R. VERNEKAR6TH SEM

MECHANICAL DEPARTMENTB.V.B COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

& TECHNOLOGY.HUBLI.

E-Mail: ravivernekar@gmail.com

NON CONVENTIONAL SOURCES OF ENERGY

ANTI MATTER-THE ULTIMATE ENERGY

Authors:

Ravi Vernekar - 4th SEM

Vikram Korlahalli - 4th SEM

Guide:- Mr. Anand Shivpuji

Dept of mechanical Engg, B.V.B.C.E.T, Hubli

Abstract: The concept of generation of energy from antimatter as a non-conventional

source of energy is a hot concept that is being stressed in developed nations since the

present sources of energy and power generation will be completely exhausted in another

100 years or so. This paper deals with the feasibility of using antimatter as a potential

source of energy in future. A significant amount of R&D has taken place in USA and

EUROPE, more specifically through organizations like CERN and Fermi lab. Antimatter is

one of the best sources of energy ever known, even though the present day technology is

not that developed. Serious work should be carried in this field so that this technology

becomes feasible in the future. This paper, from efficiency point of view expresses

thoughts towards the pros and cons of adopting Antimatter as a source of energy.

Keywords: Anti matter, anti proton decelerator, antineutron, positron, anti proton,

CERN, Fermi lab,

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Introduction

An interesting thing that has been discovered

about matter particles is that each one has a

corresponding antiparticle. The term "anti" may be a bit

decieving, as it is still real matter. The only difference

between a particle and it's antiparticle is that an

antiparticle has the opposite electrical charge.

.

Matter-antimatter interaction produces more energy per

unit mass than any othermeans of energy production.

For example, proton-antiproton annihilation releases

275 times more energy in the form of kinetic energy of

charged particles than nuclear fission or DT fusion. This

energy is released by simple contact of anti-matter with

matter so that, in principle, no ignition energy is required

to start the reaction. It is therefore not surprising that the

concept of using antimatter as an energy source has

been in scientific literature for decades

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This article focuses on the History of anti-particles, its

production and storage,. The applications of the anti-

matter in different fields. The main focus would be on

the anit-matter as a potential source of energy meeting

all the energy demands of the world. We are going to

deal with its economic prospective and the many

drawbacks concerned with it. we are going present even

the remedial measures to sustain anti-matter as a

source of energy, in the future.

Antimatter History and Related Work :

The history of antimatter begins in 1928 with a young

physicist named Paul Dirac and a strange mathematical

equation...

The equation, in some way, predicted the existence of

an antiworld identical to ours but made out of antimatter.

Was this possible? if so, where and how could we

search for antimatter?

From 1928 to 1995

1928: The beginning

the history of antimatter begins with a young physicist

named Paul Dirac and the strange implications of a

mathematical equation...

It was the beginning of the 20th century, an exciting time

when the very foundations of physics were shaken by

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the appearance of two important new theories: relativity

and quantum mechanics.

In 1905 Albert Einstein unveiled his theory of Special

Relativity, explaining the relationship between space

and time, and between energy and mass in his famous

equation E=mc2. Meanwhile experiments had revealed

that light sometimes behaved as a wave, but other times

behaved as if it were a stream of tiny particles. Max

Planck proposed that each light wave must come in a

little packet, which he called a "quantum": this way light

was not just a wave or just a particle, but a bit of both.

By the 1920s, physicists were trying to apply the same

concept to the atom and its constituents, and by the end

of the decade Erwin Schrodinger and Werner

Heisenberg had invented the new quantum theory of

physics. The only problem now was that quantum theory

was not relativistic - meaning the quantum description

worked only for particles moving slowly, and not for

those at high (or "relativistic") velocity, close to the

speed of light.

In 1928, Paul Dirac solved the problem: he wrote down

an equation, which combined quantum theory and

special relativity, to describe the behaviour of the

electron. Dirac's equation won him a Nobel Prize in

1933, but also posed another problem: just as the

equation x2=4 can have two possible solutions (x=2 OR

x=-2), so Dirac's equation could have two solutions, one

for an electron with positive energy, and one for an

electron with negative energy. But in classical physics

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(and common sense!), the energy of a particle must

always be a positive number!

Dirac interpreted this to mean that for every particle that

exists there is a corresponding antiparticle, exactly

matching the particle but with opposite charge. For the

electron, for instance, there should be an "antielectron"

identical in every way but with a positive electric charge.

In his Nobel Lecture, Dirac speculated on the existence

of a completely new Universe made out of antimatter!

Sources of anti-matter:

1) Comets

Scientists have discovered that comets are natural

sources of antimatter

As comets approach the sun, comets develop a

coma around the nucleus and tails that bend in the

direction of the solar wind. The picture of Halley's

comet (center) shows solar dust particles blasting

antimatter off the comet's surface.. The matter and

antimatter annihilations creates gamma-rays, x-rays,

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and light. The annihilation energy is billions of times

more than the sunlight reflecting off the comet's nucleus.

2) Anti-Proton Decelerator (AD):

Before being delivered to the various physics

experiments, anti-proton must be isolated, collected and

stored in order to tune their energy to the appropriate

level.

The first "self-contained antiproton factory", the

Antiproton Decelerator (or AD), is operational at CERN .

It will produce the low energy antiprotons needed for a

range of studies, including the synthesis of antihydrogen

atoms - the creation of antimatter.

Production of Anti-Particles:

The Antiproton Decelerator is a very special

machine compared to what already exists at CERN and

other laboratories around the world. So far, an

"antiparticle factory" consisted of a chain of several

accelerators, each one performing one of the steps

needed to produce antiparticles. The CERN antiproton

complex is a very good example of this.

The AD ring is an approximate circle with a

circumference of 188 m. It consists of a vacuum pipe

surrounded by a long sequence of vacuum pumps,

magnets, radio-frequency cavities, high voltage

instruments and electronic circuits. Each of these pieces

has its specific function:

Antiprotons circulate inside the vacuum pipe in

order to avoid contact with normal matter (like air

molecules), and annihilate. The vacuum must be

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optimal, therefore several vacuum pumps, which extract

air, are placed around the pipe.

Magnets as well are placed all around. There are

two types of magnets: the dipoles (which have a North

and a South pole, like the well-known horseshoe

magnet) serve to change the direction of movement and

make sure the particles stay within their circular track.

They are also called "bending magnets.

Antiparticles have to be created from energy

(remember: E = mc2). This energy is obtained with

protons that have been previously accelerated in the

PS. These protons are smashed into a block of metal,

called a target. Then, the abrupt stopping of such

energetic particles releases a huge amount of energy

into a small volume, heating it up to such temperatures

that matter-antimatter particles are spontaneously

created

In about one collision out of a million, an

antiproton-proton pair is formed. But given the fact that

about 10 trillion protons hit the target (about once per

minute), this still makes a good 10 million antiprotons

heading towards the AD.

Two methods have been invented: 'stochastic'

and 'electron cooling'. Stochastic (or 'random') cooling

works best at high speeds (around the speed of light, c),

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and electron cooling works better at low speed (still fast,

but only 10-30 % of c). Their goal is to decrease energy

spread and transverse oscillations of the antiproton

beam.

Finally, when the antiparticles speed is down to

about 10% of the speed of light, the antiprotons

squeezed group (called a "bunch") is ready to be

ejected. One "deceleration cycle" is over: it has lasted

about one minute.

Applications

The AD experiments

1) Three experiments are installed in the Antiproton

Decelerator's experimental hall:

ASACUSA “Atomic Spectroscopy and Collisions using

Slow Antiprotons";

ATHENA "Antihydrogen Production and Precision

Experiments" and

ATRAP "Cold Antihydrogen for Precise Laser

Spectroscopy".

2) There are several different uses for antimatter, the

main one being for medical diagnostics where positrons

are used to help identify different diseases with the

Positron Emission Tomography (or PET scan).

3) However, if you had a gram of antimatter, you could

drive your car for about 100.000 years!

The military use of antimatter has the same limitations

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as spaceship propulsion: both would require a huge

amount of antimatter, taking million of years to produce.

Antimatter as a source of energy

In the future, antimatter will be the major source of

energy. Antimatter facilities will be processing into

energy sources.  A metric ton can produce all the

electricity power for the entire world for one year. 

Today, the world relies heavy on chemical, hydropower,

and nuclear fuels for sources of energy. Although

society could not exist today without them, there are

various problems.

Electricity from hydropower plants is provided to

more than 1 billion people. 

Nuclear Energy is a better source of energy; but

it produces tremendous waste steams of

radioactive products.  The waste streams should

be recycled and put back into the reactors and

used for fuel.

Antimatter verses Coal Power Plants  

Antimatter has significant advantages over coal.  A 100

Mw Antimatter Power Plant generates 876,000 million-

watt hours (MWh) of electricity and uses only 20 grams

of antimatter (mass of four nickels) and a similar

quantity of matter.  A 1,000 Mw Antimatter Power Plant

generates 8.76 million MWh of electricity and needs 200

grams of antimatter (mass of roll of 40 nickels) and a

similar amount of matter. The plants are estimated to

have an 88 percent efficiency.

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Waste products from 100 MW coal power

plant.

Waste Products

Thousands of 

Metric Tons

100 MW Plant

Millions of 

Metric Tons

1,000 MW Plant

Carbon Dioxide

 Coal Combustion

Residues 

 - Fly Ash

 - Bottom Ash

 - Boiler Slag

876

  25

      6 

   15 

  54

8.76

0.25

 0.06 

 0.15 

0.54

Total976 9.76

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Anti matter versus Electrical Power

World Net Generation of Electrical Power

According to the International Energy Annual 2000:

Electricity, the world generated 14,617 billion kilowatt

hours of electricity from coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear,

hydroelectric and other sources. The table shows the

energy sources compared with antimatter energy.

World net generation of power

Energy

Source

Coal, Oil

&

Natural

Gas

Hydro,

Nuclear,

Geo, &

Other

Net

Generation

Antimatter 

(Kilograms)

 North

America 2,997.11,587.0 4,584.1

104.9

Western

Europe1,365.4 1,481.7 2,847.1   65.1

Asia &

Oceania2,949.2 1,036.5 3,985.7   91.2

 Total9,318.5  5,298.6 14,617.1   334.4

Economics

As countries obtain access to economical sources of

energy, their economies will blossom.  Antimatter

energy will bring every them into 21st century without

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destroying our environment.  Countries will make

products from coal, oil, and natural gas rather than burn

the chemicals and pollute our environment.

  

Time

World's

Gross

National

Product

(GNP)

Space

Exploration

and

Colonization

Total Gross

National

Product

Today $30 trillion    

50 years $300 trillion $20 trillion $320 trillion

100 years$3,000

trillion $1,500 trillion $4,500 trillion

In 100 years, space exploration and colonization will

contribution an additional $1,500 trillion increasing the

Total Gross National Product to $4,500 trillion. 

Although the economic opportunities are measured in

thousands of trillions of dollars, the real benefits will

come from billions of people being able to live out their

dreams to make the world a better place to live.  Billions

of new jobs will be created.

Limitations:

The biggest drawback of the production of energy

from anti matter is the cost of production it self.

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Just to produce a few grams of anti matter it

costs around millions of dollars.

The next problem concerning the anti matter is its

storage, as the container which is used to store

the anti matter has the ability to annihilate with

anti matter since antimatter quickly annihilates

with matter within a time range of 10-12 sec.

Under today’s technology the production of

energy from antimatter has efficiency as less as

0.0000001%.

Remedies:

To bring down the cost of production and

research work from the present scenario. We

need form consortium of nations to carry joint

development in research and production since

the project costs around trillions of dollars.

Antiparticles have either a positive or a negative

electrical charge, so they can be stored in what

we call a trap which has the appropriate

configuration of electrical and magnetic fields to

keep them confined in a small place Anti atoms

are electrically neutral, but they have magnetic

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proprieties that can be used to keep them in

"magnetic bottles".

To develop the present technology through

rigorous R&D in this field to make it a

commercially viable source of energy.

Conclusions:

In this paper we have reviewed the recent

progress in the field of anti matter being used as

a non conventional source of energy in future.

Anti matter is a fast catching concept so there is

a need to concentrate in this field since this can

become one of the major sources of energy in

future if not the only.

References:

We have referred the following websites and books:

Websites:

www.AntimatterEnergy.com

www.matter-antimatter.com

www.cern.org

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Books:

Halliday Resnick: Fundamentals of Physics

C.M.Surko: Emerging science and Technology of

antimatter plasmas

D.L.Morgan and V.W.Hugues: Atomic processes

involved in antimatter annihilation

Bibliography

B.Autin: The CERN antiproton collector

Yu.D.Prokoshkin:Particles of antimatter

N.A. Vlasov: Annilhilation as an energy process

Acknowledgements:

We wish to acknowledge Mr. Anand Shivpuji,

Dept of Mechanical Engg. B.V.B.C.E.T. Hubli for his

valuable guidance without which this paper wouldn’t

have been possible.

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