History of Anti Matter
52nd Series
by Richard Kessler
Senior Research Associate in the Enrico Fermi Institute
Every sub-atomic particle of matter has an "anti-particle" partner with the same mass and the same interaction forces with other particles; the only difference between particles and anti-particles is that they have opposite electric charge. Despite this apparent "symmetry", nature chose to fill our universe with matter particles and virtually no antimatter particles. This lecture series will introduce the concepts of antimatter, explain how it has been observed, and discuss accelerator-based experiments that provide insight into the preponderance of matter in our universe. Individual lecture titles were as follows:
| September 30 | What are we made of ? Thoughts from ancient philosophers to Y2K Introduction to matter, antimatter and energy |
| October 7 | Discoveries of antimatter |
| October 14 | Sources of antimatter (natural and artificial) |
| October 21 | The ULTIMATE symmetry of space, time, matter and antimatter |
| October 28 | Experimental tests |
| November 4 | Ideas on the antimatter deficit in the universe |
| November 11 | Matter-antimatter asymmetry in particle decays |
| November 18 | Recent particle decay "asymmetry" experiments at Fermilab and CERN |
| November 25 | No lecture (Saturday following Thanksgiving holiday) |
| December 2 | Trapping and accelerating antimatter |
| December 9 | Other experiments and future prospects |