Matter - Antimatter
Matter
THE PRIMARY ELEMENTS OF MATTER – SCIENTIFIC APPROACHES
The atom represents the basic unit of matter. It consists of a microscopicThese two entities create movement, the Eternal First Principle!
Plotinus’ theory of the three Primordial Substances that compose the Universe and make it appear to us as ‘Matter’ is: The One, the Intellect and the Soul. From the One flows the Mind, and from the Mind pours forth into the ends of all things the Soul, which is the creator of all beings and of the phenomena of the world.
The totality of Matter that composes the world, μafter the changes and mutations it will undergo over time, will return to its original state. To the One! For Plotinus, Matter has two substances: the Intelligible and the Sensible. The Intelligible is unlimited, complex and unchanging. Its existence in the Universal space is absolutely necessary. The Sensible is not identical with the physical elements, nor with their composition, nor with the Infinite, nor with the Atoms. However, it too is absolutely necessary.
Sensory matter is immaterial and contains neither quantity nor quality. Its purpose is to receive forms. The structure of material bodies is impossible, inconceivable. In general, for Plotinus, matter has neither limits nor shape. In his philosophical distinction, he posits absolute evil as the opposite of absolute good. In another explanation of the existence and function of matter, Zeno, who attempts to expose the dualism of Plato and Aristotle ‘on matter’ and faithful to the cosmogenic views of Heraclitus, proclaims that ‘There is no matter without spirit, nor spirit without matter.’
For Zeno, every real being necessarily has a physical substance. God and the soul have bodies! The energy of the spirit manifests itself clearly in matter as ‘seminal reason.’ Zeno’s matter is in constant and endless change, which can be seen in the genesis and decay of life forms. However, the spirit is the active element that governs matter, ensuring the cohesion, interdependence and wholeness of the world. In short, Zeno captures the basic principles on which modern science bases the coherence, sequence, interdependence and unity of the forms of matter in all manifestations of the Cosmic Creation.
In this case, the creative cause of all things in the world is God alone!
Antimatter
There was a large group of space researchers from the international scientific community until the mid-20th century who strongly disputed the existence of antimatter in cosmic space. Today, antimatter particles are detectable and almost identical to their matter counterparts, with the only differences being that they have opposite charges and opposite spins. By studying the nature of matter and antimatter particles, scientists have proven that they are created simultaneously, as pairs, and that as soon as they meet, they annihilate each other and are converted into pure energy.
The planet Earth receives small amounts of antimatter from space, which constantly bombard its crust in the form of cosmic rays consisting of energetic particles from space. These antimatter particles that bombard the Earth enter the atmosphere at a frequency ranging from 1 to 10,000 per second per square metre in an area of one square kilometre.
Scientists studying storms have also observed antimatter production during natural disturbances. As is well known, bananas contain a small percentage of potassium-40, a naturally occurring isotope of potassium. By observing potassium-40 during its decay, we find that it emits a positron, which is equivalent to the antimatter of an electron…
It has also been proven that the human body contains potassium-40, which causes it to emit positrons. Nature has provided for the immediate annihilation of antimatter upon contact with matter, resulting in these particles having a very short lifespan. Science has proven that one gram of antimatter has the potential to create an explosion the size of a nuclear bomb. This is the result of the annihilation of matter and antimatter when they combine, releasing enormous amounts of energy.
Today, in nuclear laboratories on Earth, scientists are able to create antimatter in very small quantities, but it is extremely useful in their experimental studies. The cost of producing and storing antimatter is extremely problematic. To date, CERN has produced just over one nanogram of antimatter. More than twenty-five million billion kilowatt hours of energy are required to produce just one gram of antimatter.
Nature has limited the production of antimatter, which, in the hands of humans, could cause planetary destruction if used illegally. The effects of gravity on antimatter in their research create objective difficulties. In established experiments, it must be possible to ‘trap’ antimatter or slow it down using cooling to just above zero. In these experiments, physicists must use uncharged particles, because gravity is the weakest of the four fundamental forces of nature, so that they can prevent interference from the stronger electric force.
As is well known, in our time there are particle accelerators but also particle decelerators. In the CERN laboratories, there is a special mechanism involving a storage ring that can capture and slow down antiprotons in order to study their properties and behaviour. This mechanism is called an antiproton decelerator. The Large Hadron Collider, which belongs to the circular particle accelerators, gives the particles an ‘energy boost’ each time they complete a rotation.
In reverse operation, instead of receiving an energy boost during their rotation, the particles are pushed backwards to slow down their speed. Result: At CERN, the antiproton decelerator slows down antiprotons before they are sent to various experiments involving the study of antimatter. Scientists at CERN laboratories can easily distinguish a matter particle and its antimatter counterpart, which act as opposite charges.
Neutrinos, which are particles with almost zero mass and which, in very rare cases, interact with matter, have no charge. Scientists believe that neutrinos may be related to Majorana particles, which in turn are particles that are their own antiparticles, and are trying to determine whether their behaviour manifests itself through the double-beta decay process without neutrinos.
There are certain radioactive nuclei that have the property of decaying simultaneously, releasing two electrons and two neutrons. If they found that neutrinos belong to their own antiparticles, one would annihilate the other, i.e. it would be a consequence of double decay, with the result that scientists would only be able to observe electrons. One way to explain the asymmetry that characterises matter and antimatter would be to find Majorana neutrinos, which physicists believe are sometimes heavy and sometimes light.
Today, we can detect the light ones, while the heavy ones could only be detected immediately after the Big Bang. There is a high probability that the heavy Majorana neutrinos were asymmetrically split, resulting in the tiny surplus of matter that gave the universe the privilege of existing! We conclude this topic with the belief that only a small amount of antimatter, enclosed in the palm of our hand, could produce a gigantic amount of energy to propel the antimatter rockets that man dreams of and struggles to build on Earth to conquer space.