3 ms·
> shelf stable helium/antimatter hybrid atoms Well. Depends on the scale you consider to be shelf stable: The antiproton can thus orbit the nucleus for tens o
by waterhouse 5y ago
> shelf stable helium/antimatter hybrid atoms
Well. Depends on the scale you consider to be shelf stable: The antiproton can thus orbit the nucleus for tens of microseconds, before finally falling to its surface and annihilating. I think that is a relatively long time in terms of particle-physics experiments, but it's not something you could stockpile.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiprotonic_helium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antiprotonic_helium
- mikewarot 5y agoIt makes no reference to lifetimes in the article, other than to say the outer electron shields it. The Wikipedia article mentions that it has a high energy, which aligns with the original article, which also states they figured out how to lower the energy. So, mixed signals... it could be stable??
- AnimalMuppet 5y agoNo. The problem is that once the antiproton reaches the ground state, its wavefunction has significant overlap with the nucleus. That means that it's going to encounter the proton in short order.