German Researchers Succeed In Observing Magnetic Properties Of Single Proton
Scientists in Germany have finally succeeded in observing the magnetic characteristics of the fundamental particle proton in an atom directly. With this achievement they have global leaders in this field after overtaking their fellow physicists at the prestigious Harvard University. This awesome step ahead in science was a cumulative effort of a team of scholars from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) and the Helmholtz Institute Mainz (HIM), together with their colleagues from the Max Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg and the GSI Helmholtz Center for Heavy Ion Research in Darmstadt. They studied and witnessed spin quantum jumps within a trapped proton. This was the first time in the history of mankind that such an observation was made.
#-Link-Snipped-#This research is a stepping stone that will help to facilitate measurement of the magnetic parameters of protons directly and that too with a high degree of accuracy. This measurement theory is based on the concept of a single captive proton in an electromagnetic particle trap. This same methodology might be applied for witnessing the much hyped antiproton. These observations might help the nuclear physicists all around the world to settle the very old debate on the matter-antimatter imbalance in our universe. However, to find a reasonable and rational answer as to why the antimatter didn’t cancel all the matter after the Big Bang, one must first thoroughly analyze the antimatter in detail. This might help us explain the origin of the Earth.
Like all the other particles, a proton also has an internal spin or angular momentum. It resembles a bar magnet. That is, a change in the spin direction corresponds to the flip of the magnetic poles. The detection of this proton spin has been a major challenge and hence it eluded the scientists for a long time even after the magnetic moments of the electron and its anti-particle, the positron were observed way back in 1980s. The main factor that hindered the observation of proton spin was that magnetic moment of a proton is 660 times smaller than that of an electron. This makes it awfully hard to detect. This team however tasted success after working for almost 5 years to develop an experiment that would suffice all the necessary test conditions. The magnetic moment of the proton will be measured at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics in Geneva, or at FLAIR/GSI in Darmstadt. Till now, the intrinsic angular momentum of the anti proton has been calculated only up to three decimal places but the new technique developed in the labs at Mainz aims to improve it a million times more accurate.
An important concept on which the entire Standard Model of elementary particle physics is based is the matter-antimatter symmetry. This model tells that the matter and antimatter particles act in a similar fashion once the CPT transformation takes place i.e. there is an inversion of the charge, parity and time parameters at the same instant. Accurate observations of the proton and antiproton will help the scientists to verify the Standard Model theory.
Image Credit: HyperGeometrical Universe - The Theory of Everything
#-Link-Snipped-#This research is a stepping stone that will help to facilitate measurement of the magnetic parameters of protons directly and that too with a high degree of accuracy. This measurement theory is based on the concept of a single captive proton in an electromagnetic particle trap. This same methodology might be applied for witnessing the much hyped antiproton. These observations might help the nuclear physicists all around the world to settle the very old debate on the matter-antimatter imbalance in our universe. However, to find a reasonable and rational answer as to why the antimatter didn’t cancel all the matter after the Big Bang, one must first thoroughly analyze the antimatter in detail. This might help us explain the origin of the Earth.
Like all the other particles, a proton also has an internal spin or angular momentum. It resembles a bar magnet. That is, a change in the spin direction corresponds to the flip of the magnetic poles. The detection of this proton spin has been a major challenge and hence it eluded the scientists for a long time even after the magnetic moments of the electron and its anti-particle, the positron were observed way back in 1980s. The main factor that hindered the observation of proton spin was that magnetic moment of a proton is 660 times smaller than that of an electron. This makes it awfully hard to detect. This team however tasted success after working for almost 5 years to develop an experiment that would suffice all the necessary test conditions. The magnetic moment of the proton will be measured at CERN, the European laboratory for particle physics in Geneva, or at FLAIR/GSI in Darmstadt. Till now, the intrinsic angular momentum of the anti proton has been calculated only up to three decimal places but the new technique developed in the labs at Mainz aims to improve it a million times more accurate.
An important concept on which the entire Standard Model of elementary particle physics is based is the matter-antimatter symmetry. This model tells that the matter and antimatter particles act in a similar fashion once the CPT transformation takes place i.e. there is an inversion of the charge, parity and time parameters at the same instant. Accurate observations of the proton and antiproton will help the scientists to verify the Standard Model theory.
Image Credit: HyperGeometrical Universe - The Theory of Everything
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