Science Seminar: AntiMatter

AntiMatter Seminar

Introduction of the project and topic: Ingrid Koenig and Randy Cutler, 1:30pm – 1:45pm

Talk on the discovery and perception of antimatter: Marcello Pavan, 1:35pm – 1:50pm

• Introduction of topic by showing off the Dirac Equation
• History of antimatter and its discovery
• Antimatter in culture (e.g. Star Trek)
• Lead-up to ALPHA
• Watch Marchello’s segment here: https://vimeo.com/209517087

Live Segment on ALPHA:Makoto Fujiwara, 1:50pm – 2:05pm

• Set up a Skype interview with Makoto (who will be at CERN)
• Provide an overview of the ALPHA experiment
• Will be showing an Outreach video about ALPHA from CERN
• Watch Makoto’s segment here: https://vimeo.com/211111558

Detailed talks about antimatter in current research: Matter and antimatter asymmetry: David Morrissey, 2:05pm – 2:20pm

Talk about matter and antimatter and relevance to start of the universe Interactive segment:

• Prepare ~ 48 green cards and ~ 45 red cards, where green will represent matter and red antimatter
• Each person in the audience will have one card below their seat and will disperse within the auditorium
• Through mingling, everyone will find out what card someone else has leading to two options: a. If they both have cards of the same colour, they “repel” and scatter to other people in the room b. If they have opposite cards, they “annihilate”, and head to a corner of the room
• After a few minutes, there should only be ~3 people left, who will represent the extra matter in the universe

Highlight after segment that if the entire world did this simulation, there will only be 1 person left to represent matter (reflects ratio of 1:1010 of matter remaining)

Antimatter Fun Facts: Carla Barquest, 2:20pm – 2:25pm

• Present relatable numerical facts about Antimatter
• Use fun analogies to intrigue the artist’s interpretation of antimatter

Antimatter and Ultra Cold Neutrons: Des Ramsay, 2:25pm – 2:35pm

• Simple introduction CPT conservation and relevance to antimatter
• Include a visual component of conservation through equations and diagrams
• Draw link to UCN experiment

Antimatter and Positron Emission Tomography: Nick Zacchia, 2:35pm – 2:45pm

• Talk of how antimatter is involved in PET scanning
• Discuss what we can learn from the detection of positrons
• End with mention of SPECT

Demonstration Segment: Various Scientists, 2:45pm – 3:05pm

• There will be 4 demos already set up around MOB, free for people to venture to
• To promote participation, each artist will need to pick up stickers from each station

a. SPECT scanning: MOB Auditorium

• Requires hiding a gamma source in a circular frame of cardboard
• Artists will need to move around a pancake meter to detect gammas from the source

b. Cloud chamber: Front Desk Lobby

• Gather people around the cloud chamber to show continuous stream of antimuons
• Discuss it’s origin from nuclear reactions in the sun

c. Camelia LHC simulator: MOB Conference Room

• Use Camelia software to illustrate antiproton beams operating at CERN
• Free for people to operate themselves and visualise particle collisions

d. Antimatter decays: MOB Auditorium

• Use ~25 green cubic die to illustrate decays, colouring one side red (for antimatter)
• Encourage people to input values onto a python code to show graphical decay

Watch the full seminar