Gravitational Interaction of Antimatter - Antimatter Gravity Debate

Antimatter Gravity Debate

When antimatter was first discovered in 1932, physicists wondered about how it would react to gravity. Initial analysis focused on whether antimatter should react the same as matter or react oppositely. Several theoretical arguments arose which convinced physicists that antimatter would react exactly the same as normal matter. They inferred that a gravitational repulsion between matter and antimatter was implausible as it would violate CPT invariance, conservation of energy, result in vacuum instability, and result in CP violation. It was also theorized that it would be inconsistent with the results of the Eötvös test of the weak equivalence principle. Many of these early theoretical objections were later overturned.

Read more about this topic:  Gravitational Interaction Of Antimatter

Famous quotes containing the words gravity and/or debate:

    Grown beyond nature now, soft food for worms,
    They lift frail heads in gravity and good faith.
    Derek Mahon (b. 1941)

    A great deal of unnecessary worry is indulged in by theatregoers trying to understand what Bernard Shaw means. They are not satisfied to listen to a pleasantly written scene in which three or four clever people say clever things, but they need to purse their lips and scowl a little and debate as to whether Shaw meant the lines to be an attack on monogamy as an institution or a plea for manual training in the public school system.
    Robert Benchley (1889–1945)