Angels & Demons is now in theaters, but I think the excitement about the movie pales in comparison to the actual experiment on which the movie is based. I am talking about the A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS experiment, otherwise known as the ATLAS experiment. This experiment, which will be carried out at CERN, seeks to answer some of the fundamental questions about the forces which shaped our universe. The experiment uses a Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to speed two protons to nearly the speed of light. When the protons collide the ATLAS detector will collect enormous amounts of information about the collision. Scientists hope to learn about the hypothetical Higgs boson (referred to as the “God particle” in Angels & Demons), which would explain the way particles acquire mass. Additionally, scientists hope to gather information on possible extra dimensions of space, microscopic black holes, and evidence for dark matter candidates in the Universe.
But enough background. Last night at Columbia University’s Café Science experimental particle physicist Mike Tuts, discussed if the antimatter bomb, the weapon in Angels & Demons, could actually be produced and used present day. In the film1, a ½ gram of antimatter is stolen from CERN in a vacuum-sealed container. A battery-powered magnetic field, lasting only 24 hours, supports the drop of antimatter within the canister. The villains, seemingly the Illuminati, hope to blow up Vatican City once the battery dies, by letting the antimatter drop, collide with the bottom of the canister (matter) and annihilate.
Theoretically, an antimatter bomb could be produced. However, if all the antimatter from the ATLAS experiment were gathered, it would only produce enough energy to raise the temperature of a cup of coffee by 1°C. According to Tuts, it would take scientists approximately 10 millions years to obtain the ½ gram of antimatter used in the movie.
Lucky for us. Now we can just sit back and enjoy the movie.
1 If you are unfamiliar with the plot and want to know more, see this link, which discusses the ATLAS experiment as seen in Angels & Demons.