{"id":6811,"date":"2020-09-07T11:43:21","date_gmt":"2020-09-07T10:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/?p=6811"},"modified":"2020-09-07T11:43:21","modified_gmt":"2020-09-07T10:43:21","slug":"mimicking-antideuteron-production-in-space-at-cern","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.innovationnewsnetwork.com\/mimicking-antideuteron-production-in-space-at-cern\/6811\/","title":{"rendered":"Mimicking antideuteron production in space at CERN"},"content":{"rendered":"
Deuterium is one of two stable hydrogen isotopes<\/a>, the nucleus of which, named deuteron, contains one proton and one neutron. Its antimatter counterpart, antideuteron, has recently been the subject of an extensive study at CERN.<\/p>\n Innovations News Network<\/em>\u2019s digital editor, Caitlin Magee spoke to Luciano Musa<\/a>, senior physicist at CERN and spokesperson of the ALICE Collaboration<\/a>, about the production of antideuteron. \u201cThe mechanism behind the formation of antideuteron is not yet fully understood. They can be produced in the collision of a high energy proton or nucleus with another proton or nucleus. These collisions occur in nature, for example in the collision of a cosmic ray proton on a proton or nucleus in the interstellar medium,\u201d commented Musa.<\/p>\n CERN\u2019s ALICE collaboration has recently presented new results on the production rates of antideuterons. These finding were based on data collected at the highest collision energy delivered so far at CERN\u2019s Large Hadron Collider<\/a> (LHC), which is the world\u2019s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. Musa believes that \u201cit is important to understand that deuterons have already been observed in space, from cosmic rays. While antideuterons from cosmic rays have not yet been observed. The possible presence of anti-deuterons in our Galaxy could be due to reactions of high-energy cosmic rays with the interstellar medium, but it may also reveal more exotic sources, such as dark-matter annihilation or decay\u201d. These recent finding allow to better estimate the rate of production of antideuterons by the collision of cosmic rays with the interstellar medium, as well as the rate of their annihilation caused by encountering matter in their journey from the outer space. This will allow to infer the existence of dark matter from the possible detection of these anti-nuclei in space.<\/p>\n Astrophysical and cosmological studies indicate that dark matter is the dominant form of matter in the Universe, accounting for approximately 85% of all matter. Detecting antideuterons in space could be an indirect signature of dark matter, as they can be produced during the decay of neutralinos or sneutrinos, which are hypothetical dark matter particles.<\/p>\n