Gravitation and Antimatter: Does it Matter?

[The legend]

According to Newtons law of gravitation
when 2 masses are separated by distance d ,,, then the gravitational force acting on them is
F = Gm₁m₂/d²

Does this apply to antimatter and antimatter (negative mass and negative mass)??

And also does it apply to matter and antimatter (mass and negative mass)?

(I actually am very very new to this concept of antimatter ... so if I m wrong somewhere please do point out so that I can improve!)

Thanks for your help!

 

[dave_baksh]

No, antimatter has mass in the same way that matter does.

 

[filegraphy]

Antimatter and matter are attracted together both by gravity and magnetism. Dealing with gravity antimatter has mass and matter has mass. Antimatter has an opposite spin causing opposite charge, but it still has mass. Same for matter. The point is antimatter has a positive mass. How can you have a negative mass? A mass of 0 would not have mass. Negative mass? How can that be?

 

[The legend]

Got it ... I just heard about this negative mass research going on somewhere related to antimatter... maybe I heard wrong!
So the overall attraction between antimatter and matter will be more than tat between matter and matter separated at the same distance.
Right?

 

[cragar]

So the overall attraction between antimatter and matter will be more than tat between matter and matter separated at the same distance.
Right?

When you say attraction are you talking about gravity , The attraction between a proton
and an anti-proton would be the same as the G attraction between two protons ,
And like the anti-particle of the electron is the positron , it has the same weight as the electron but opposite in charge .

 

[phyzguy]

I agree with everything that is said here, but I want to point out that this question has not yet been experimentally tested. While most physicists believe on theoretical grounds that antimatter will react in a gravitational field the same way as matter, it would be nice to have an experimental test. People are actively working on cooling antimatter to the point where the rate at which it falls in the Earth's gravity field can be measured, to verify that it falls at the same rate as matter. With the recent hints that neutrinos and anti-neutrinos have different oscillation rates, and the poor understanding of what led to the matter/antimatter asymmetry in the current universe, it looks like there are things here that we don't yet fully understand.