국내 최대 기계 및 로봇 연구정보

기술보고서

기술보고서 게시판 내용
타이틀	Antimatter Production at a Potential Boundary
저자	Michael R. LaPointe
Keyword	Antimatter; Antiparticles; Antiprotons; Propulsion; Matter-antimatter propulsion
URL	http://gltrs.grc.nasa.gov/reports/2001/CR-2001-211116.pdf
보고서번호	NASA CR-2001-211116
발행년도	2001
출처	NASA Glenn Research Center
ABSTRACT	Current antiproton production techniques rely on high-energy collisions between beam particles and target nuclei to produce particle and antiparticle pairs, but inherently low production and capture efficiencies render these techniques impractical for the cost-effective production of antimatter for space propulsion and other commercial applications. Based on Diracchr(39)s theory of the vacuum field, a new antimatter production concept is proposed in which particle-antiparticle pairs are created at the boundary of a steep potential step formed by the suppression of the local vacuum fields. Current antimatter production techniques are reviewed, followed by a description of Diracchr(39)s relativistic quantum theory of the vacuum state and corresponding solutions for particle tunneling and reflection from a potential barrier. The use of the Casimir effect to suppress local vacuum fields is presented as a possible technique for generating the sharp potential gradients required for particle-antiparticle pair creation.