Antimatter and Antigravity Connected ?

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    Antimatter
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the potential connection between antimatter and antigravity, exploring theoretical implications and experimental observations related to gravitational interactions involving antimatter. Participants examine the nature of gravitational forces in relation to matter and antimatter, as well as the implications of these forces in quantum mechanics and general relativity.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Conceptual clarification

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants propose that antimatter behaves similarly to matter in terms of gravitational attraction, suggesting that gravitational forces between matter-matter, antimatter-matter, and antimatter-antimatter are always attractive.
  • Others question the experimental basis for these claims, seeking clarification on whether such gravitational interactions have been tested and verified.
  • A participant mentions that the gravitational force is replaced by the curvature of spacetime, which is influenced by ordinary matter rather than antimatter.
  • Some argue that the properties of particles, such as mass, charge, and spin, are crucial in understanding the formation of neutral matter and antimatter.
  • There is a discussion about the concept of negative mass and its implications for antigravity, with some participants asserting that negative mass does not exist within the framework of current physics.
  • A participant introduces the idea of generalized absolute acceleration and its potential relationship to antigravity, suggesting a balance between inward and outward spiraling accelerations.
  • References to historical experiments, such as J.J. Thomson's and Millikan's, are made to support claims about mass and charge, although their relevance to antimatter and gravity is debated.
  • Some participants mention the formation of anti-helium and anti-hydrogen atoms, discussing the implications for antimatter's existence and properties.
  • There is a suggestion that the annihilation of electron-positron pairs produces various products, including photons, but the nature of these interactions remains a topic of exploration.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants express a range of views on the gravitational behavior of antimatter, with some asserting that it behaves like matter while others challenge this notion. The discussion remains unresolved, with multiple competing perspectives on the relationship between antimatter and gravitational forces.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the lack of experimental verification for some claims regarding the gravitational behavior of antimatter and the dependence on theoretical frameworks that may not fully account for all phenomena. The discussion also highlights the complexity of particle interactions and the need for further exploration of concepts like negative mass and generalized acceleration.

  • #31
Retro-update on the confinement of anti-particle. Many years ago, Dehmelt was able to confine an anti-particle named Priscilla in a Penning trap for an indefinite time. Long enough to verify some of the constants of nature and for more precisions in their numerical values. Dehmelt and Wolfgang Paul, together with Ramsey, shared the 1989 Nobel Prize in physics for their works.
 
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  • #32
Exactly!

Good update, for now.
 
  • #34
I fail to see how the Weeks et al paper breaks any new ground. All it does is arrive at the conclusion the observable universe is finite. That is not the same as saying the 'real' universe is finite. It only infers that our ability to observe is finite. Duh. We cannot 'prove' anything is 'true'. We can only prove that certain pairs of things cannot both be true simultaneously. Our inability to solve the 3 body problem of gravitational attraction illustrates how incompetent we are, not to mention our inability to solve the Dirac equation for anything more complex than a hydrogen atom. We have much to learn.
 
  • #35
Chronos said:
Our inability to solve the 3 body problem of gravitational attraction...

Could nature be simpler than what we want it to be? Newton's law of universal gravitation is a 2-body problem (though a mass disparity of very large and very small). Coulomb's law of electrostatic force is also a 2-body problem of electric charges.

But the n-body problem is solved using statistical mechanics which necessarily incorporate the theory of probability and random variables. Anything more than 3 bodies, probability is involved and the process becomes stochastic instead of deterministic. But when n is just a little bit greater than 2, perturbation theory can be used. In astrodynamics, the n-body problem is solved by taking the interaction of 2 bodies at a time and then add all the 2-body interactions together.
 

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