Antimatter Test Aims for an Instant of Success

Seventy-five years ago, theoretical physicist Paul Dirac asserted that all basic building blocks of matter have mirror counterparts in nature, known as antimatter. When matter and antimatter collide, they annihilate each other.

Physicists had long believed that they could combine an antiproton and an antielectron to form an anti-hydrogen atom. A few such anti-atoms have been produced; efforts are underway to make, trap and store large amounts of them.

At a scientific meeting held last week, physicists predicted that it will soon be possible to create a new molecule that combines regular hydrogen and anti-hydrogen.

Though the exotic molecule would annihilate itself in a shower of gamma rays and subnuclear particles, the fleeting creation could be used to test whether any primordial antimatter created in the early universe is still present today.