Does antimatter ‘fall’ like normal matter? Study explores concept’s gravitational impact

Antimatter, one of the most complex subjects even for physicists, remains difficult to study; The main reason for this is that, unlike the objects we use on a daily basis, it is just a kind of quantum shadow of ordinary matter. After all, if the Big Bang created equal amounts of matter and antimatter, where did this enormous volume of “mirrors” of oppositely charged matter end up?

Recently, a team of international researchers participating in the European Council for Nuclear Research’s (CERN) Antihydrogen Laser Physics Devices (ALPHA) collaboration successfully completed the first direct measurement of the effect of gravity on the motion of antimatter.

Using a new device called ALPHA-g, scientists have answered a question that can be very absurd when it comes to matter: Does antimatter fall up or down? The answer, as it has been hypothesized but not yet tested, is that antimatter falls “down.” Although seemingly simple, the experiment is an unprecedented scientific achievement and a significant advance in antimatter research.

How has the effect of gravity on antimatter been confirmed?

Researchers led by plasma physicist Jonathan Wurtele of the University of California, Berkeley, managed to capture and study antihydrogen particles at CERN. They were trapped inside a bottle with magnetic fields at the ends that could be reduced. By doing this, the team allowed the antimatter particles to escape.

When one of these particles reached the top or bottom of the magnetic vial, it momentarily glowed. The researchers then counted these flashes and found that more particles (80%) than the total number of particles went to the bottom. The experiment, repeated several times, repeated the same result: antihydrogen drops further.

Scientists also measured the gravitational acceleration of the antimatter under study; this acceleration was evaluated as close to that of normal matter; this value was 9.8 square meters per second. Although the tests were done only with antihydrogen, the study’s authors speculate that this result also applies to other types of antimatter.

How important is it to measure the gravity of antimatter?

The completed experiment showed that “antihydrogen atoms freed from magnetic confinement in the ALPHA-g apparatus behave in a manner consistent with a gravitational attraction to the Earth.”

In other words, a supposedly repulsive “anti-gravity” is ignored. The discovery also facilitates future evaluations involving the gravitational acceleration between antiatoms and Tera, such as the weak equivalence proposed by Einstein.

Although this is an obvious conclusion, “The experiment had to be done because you can never be sure. Physics is an experimental science. You don’t want to be the fool who doesn’t do an experiment to explore the possibilities.” Just because you think you know the answer, new physics emerges and then something different emerges,” Wurtele concludes.

Stay up to date with physics discoveries at TecMundo. If you wish, take the opportunity to read the new research explaining the gravity hole in the Indian Ocean.