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antihydrogen

antihydrogen

1 9.9
An atom like hydrogen made of particles that are the opposite of normal ones
  • noun
  • /ˌæntiˈhaɪdrəʤən/
  • Specialized
: antihidrógeno
  • To prove that they had formed antihydrogen, the ATHENA collaborators had to detect the nearly simultaneous annihilations of a p and an e+.

Examples

  • The convertible energy of 50,000 antihydrogen atoms is, according to Einstein's famous equation, about 1.5 x 10^-5 Joules.

    Academic text (2005)
  • The other option, which the ATRAP group has chosen, is to perform the measurements on antihydrogen held in a trap.

    Academic text (2002)
  • The experiment is so hard that forming antihydrogen is a big deal.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Occasionally, one of the newly produced positrons (e+) moved in the same direction and with the same speed as the "mother" p, which then picked it up to form antihydrogen.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Hangst commented that neutral traps for antihydrogen are not very deep and thus require the atoms to be as cold as a few degrees Kelvin.

    Academic text (2002)
  • He and his ATRAP collaborators are also attempting to produce and detect antihydrogen.

    Academic text (2002)
  • ATHENA, a second antihydrogen collaboration at CERN, has now accomplished that feat, detecting more than 100 atoms.

    Academic text (2002)
  • In 1999, the ATRAP team confined antiprotons and positrons in the same trap (n3) at temperatures as low as 4 K, but has not yet shown that antihydrogen is formed.

    Academic text (2002)
  • CERN's Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility, created largely to support antihydrogen research (see PHYSICS TODAY, October 2000, page 22), supplies antiprotons traveling at about one-tenth the speed of light.

    Academic text (2002)
  • Researchers at CERN successfully created the first stable sample of antihydrogen in the lab.

Synonyms

antimatter
vsantihydrogen
  • Specialized
43 8.4

A kind of substance made of particles opposite to normal matter that release energy when they meet normal matter

is one specific atomic form of that broader antiparticle matter
antiatom
vsantihydrogen
  • Specialized
1 9.9

An atom made of particles that are the opposites of normal particles

is a specific such atom consisting of an antiproton and a positron

Surface Forms

antihydrogen singular
antihydrogens plural

Morphology

antihydrogen = hydrogen (semi-transparent) = anti + hydrogen

The word is clearly built from 'anti-' plus 'hydrogen', but the scientific meaning is specialized rather than directly inferable for an average learner.

Etymology

Antihydrogen is made of the prefix anti- meaning 'opposite' and hydrogen, a name that comes from parts meaning 'water' and 'to make', so it was called the 'water maker'. So antihydrogen is the 'opposite' of hydrogen — the antimatter form of hydrogen made of particles that are mirror copies of the normal ones.