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Originally Posted by Argos
No, I´m affraid. AFAIK, storing anti-matter poses a huge challenge. The particles created at the LL lab are destroyed almost immediately by contact with normal matter.
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not really,
Fermilab and CERN have been using accelerators for making, storing and colliding antimatter for over twenty years.
while it is true that not much Antimatter is produced, and the cost of the production is really high, Antimatter is in fact stored in vacuum and magnetic confinement fields this keeps the antimatter from coming in contact with normal matter.
http://www.matter-antimatter.com/antimatter_storage.htm
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Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory stores about 10^14 antiprotons or 6 x 10^-9 grams in magnetic bottle made from refrigerator magnets.
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http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2000/ast29may_1m.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penning_trap
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A Penning trap is tested at Penn State University. Penning traps use a combination of low temperatures and electromagnetic fields to store antimatter. While the traps can only store incredibly small quantities, the traps will help in developing the technologies needed for advanced propulsion concepts. Credit: Laboratory for Energetic Particle Science at Pennsylvania State University.
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http://helios.gsfc.nasa.gov/qa_gp_tp.html#antim
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Electric and magnetic fields can be used to focus, confine, and store antimatter. If they are cold, antiprotons can be stored in a Penning trap for several days.
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penning_trap
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Penning traps use a strong homogeneous axial magnetic field to confine particles radially and a quadrupole electric field to confine the particles axially.
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http://www.engr.psu.edu/antimatter/
http://van.physics.uiuc.edu/qa/listing.php?id=1173
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Yup, we routinely create antimatter and store it in vacuum chambers, held in place with magnets. Of course the magnetic force on a charged particle is proportional to the velocity of the particle, so these antimatter particles must be moving. We store beams of anti-electrons (positrons) and anti-protons all the time.
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