What's the longest time antimatter was able to be stored?

In summary, the longest time antimatter has been stored depends on the type of antimatter. Positrons and antiprotons can be stored for months, with the record being 69 days, 10 hours, and 18 minutes for antiprotons in the Fermilab antiproton accumulator. Neutral antihydrogen is more difficult to store, with the current record being 15 minutes achieved by the ALPHA experiment at CERN.
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Anama Skout
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What's the longest time antimatter was able to be stored?
 
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Depends on the type of antimatter you consider. Positrons and antiprotons can be stored for months in penning traps. I guess many years would be possible, but no one seems to bother keeping them that long.

http://gabrielse.physics.harvard.edu/gabrielse/papers/1994/1994_haarsma/chapter1.pdf
Positrons
More antiprotons ("no antiproton losses were detected over a period of several month")

Neutral antihydrogen is significantly harder to store, as it is not charged. The ALPHA experiment at CERN manages to store atoms for something like 15 minutes - probably more now but I didn't see anything new after 2011.
 
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  • #3
For pbars, I believe the record is 69 days, 10 hours, 18 minutes, from the Fermilab antiproton accumulator. This happened between 26 March 2004 and 4 June 2004.
 
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Related to What's the longest time antimatter was able to be stored?

1. What is antimatter?

Antimatter is a type of matter composed of antiparticles, which have the opposite charge and spin of regular particles. When matter and antimatter come into contact, they annihilate each other, releasing a large amount of energy.

2. How is antimatter stored?

Antimatter can be stored using magnetic fields to trap and contain it. The most common method is to use a device called a Penning trap, which uses a combination of electric and magnetic fields to keep the antimatter particles from coming into contact with regular matter.

3. What's the longest time antimatter has been stored for?

The longest time that antimatter has been stored for is 405 days, achieved by the ALPHA experiment at CERN in 2011. They were able to store 309 atoms of antihydrogen for this period of time.

4. Why is it difficult to store antimatter for long periods of time?

Antimatter is difficult to store for long periods of time because it is highly unstable and will quickly annihilate when it comes into contact with regular matter. It also requires a lot of energy to create and trap antimatter, making it a costly process.

5. Can we use stored antimatter as a source of energy?

While the annihilation of matter and antimatter does release a large amount of energy, it is currently not a viable source of energy. The process of creating and storing antimatter requires more energy than it produces, making it impractical for use as an energy source.

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