Anti-Matter--it's the stuff in Star Trek, right? Yeah, it powers the warp core and makes the ship travel at speeds 10 times that of light. Most people think it isn't real because they first heard it on television--just part of pop-culture. It can't really power a spacecraft. Well, believe it or not, neither of these statements is entirely correct.

In the late 1920's Paul Dirac developed the first description of the electron that was consistent with both quantum mechanics and special relativity. However, when working this description he ended up with two solutions, one that corresponds to negatively charged particles and the other positively charged particles. Therefore, he concluded that an anti-electron must exist.

In 1932, Carl Anderson was examining cloud chamber tracks produced by cosmic rays when he recorded an electron that had been curving toward the opposite side of the magnetic field. (In other words, opposite the side that an ordinary electron would curve toward in the same magnetic field.) This was concrete data on the existence of anti-electrons. He named his anti-electron particle the positron.

In the 1950's, physicists at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory used the Bevatron accelerator (a building that uses magnets to accelerate a particle to near the speed of light) to produce the anti-proton.

Today, we know that every type of particle in the universe has a corresponding anti-particle. The standard representation for an anti-particle is a bar over the corresponding particle symbol. I.e. the tau (a third generation lepton--a fermion that doesn't participate in "strong" nuclear interactions) ((please just accept that the tau is a particle, this isn't that important anyhow)) symbolization is shown below. The anti-tau is commonly pronounced as t-bar.

tau	anti-tau (t-bar)

There is an exception--as there is to every rule. The positron and electron are not denoted in this fashion. We will address this later (this is our attempt to create suspense). Not so hard is it. But we are officially warning you: this material is very mind-boggling; it is bizarre--plain and simple. But if you get confused, just stick with us; hopefully we'll clear it up for ya!

In any event, I bet there are a few questions on your mind, like perhaps...

What exactly is this anti-matter? I mean, how is a positron different from an electron? Where is all this anti-matter? I sure don't see any around here. Are there galaxies of completely anti-matter or are we special?

We will answer you questions in due time. For now, sit back, relax, and let your brain fry.