100 tonnes of antihydrogen frozen solid in a 13.5 meter diameter sphere is enclosed in a larger sphere of ordinary matter but prevented from touching it by diamagnetism induced in superconducting rings which, like the antihydrogen, are kept at under one degree kelvin by a paramagnetic refrigeration system powered by a fission generator. Sensors and feedbacks are necessary to maintain the balance.
The omniscient narrator informs readers that antimatter with its negative protons, positive electrons and contrary spins is:
"...mathematically equivalent to holes in the vacuum..." (p. 174)
Really? Holes in the vacuum? I know that vacuum is not just empty space but I am having trouble with a kind of matter, even one called "antimatter," equating to holes in the vacuum. Is ordinary matter like hills?
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Strictly speaking, WE are full of holes, composed of invisibly tiny atoms somehow held together in forms we can see and touch.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
Yes, in a way, antimatter particles can be considered holes in the vacuum, although matter particles are not typically described as hills. I’m more familiar with this in the solid state context, where conductors and semiconductors can be viewed as having electrons and holes, the holes being absences where one would usually expect an electron. Electrons and holes can cancel each other, but without as much energy being released as in particle-antiparticle annihilation.
Best Regards,
Nicholas
Kaor, Nicholas!
Thanks for this. Glad to see you back!
Regards! Sean
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