Word: antiproton
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Because matter and antimatter annihilate each other upon contact, Gabrielse and Khabbaz isolated the antiproton in an electric and magnetic field to prevent it from touching any matter during the experiment...
FOOTNOTE: *Antiprotons and positrons are examples of antimatter, a rare set of particles that mirror normal matter. A proton is positively charged, but an antiproton is negative. The counterpart of the negative electron is the positive positron...
That is not to say that the U.S. is second rate. The Tevatron, an accelerator at Fermilab, near Chicago, that smashes together protons and antiprotons, is still the most powerful collider in the world, and the proposed superconducting supercollider, planned for Texas, will be more powerful still. Proton-antiproton collisions entail more energy than electron- positron collisions and thus are more likely to generate previously undiscovered particles. But proton-antiproton impacts generate more subatomic debris, which makes it harder to study the properties of individual particles carefully. For what Amaldi calls "precision physics," Europe could soon...
Those traces have helped physicists to track down more and more members of the large and seemingly limitless bestiary of subatomic particles. Last year, for example, Rubbia shared a Nobel Prize for having discovered, using the CERN super proton-antiproton synchrotron accelerator (SPPS), the W and Z particles. His finding provided proof for a theory that united two of the fundamental forces, electromagnetism and the weak force...
...action was brought in the California courts by Oreste Piccioni, a physics professor at the San Diego branch of the University of California who had visited Berkeley in the 1950s and discussed with Segrè and Chamberlain how the antiproton might be detected. Piccioni contends that he originated the complex detection system that was crucial to the experiment, and that Segre and Chamberlain initially agreed to let him participate in the work. Subsequently, he charges, they reneged on the agreement, used his system anyway, and then denied him proper credit when they got favorable results. Why had he stalled...