A New Centre where Antimatter Matters

 
Professor Igor Bray

A new $10 million Research Centre devoted to the study of antimatter will be established in Australia.

The Federal Minister for Education, Dr Brendan Nelson, announced funding for the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Antimatter Studies (CAMS), which will be led by scientists at The Australian National University, Murdoch, Flinders and Griffith Universities, The University of Western Australia, CSIRO and ANSTO.

The Federal Government has committed more than $7 million over five years to establish the Centre, which will develop tools and techniques to lead Australia into a new and exciting area of research in the physical, chemical and biological sciences. The participating organisations will contribute a further $3 million.

The Centre will draw together many of the world's leading experts in antimatter-matter interactions. It will be led by Professor Steve Buckman, from the Research School of Physical Sciences and Engineering at ANU, with Deputy Directors Professor Igor Bray of Murdoch University and Dr Anita Hill of the CSIRO.

'While our world is made of matter, all particles have anti-particles and the most abundant is the positron, the electron's antiparticle. Positrons are the 'workshop' for most antimatter studies and they have special properties that enable them to be widely used to probe the 'empty' space in materials with dimensions from 0.1 to 10 nanometres (nm). This size range is notoriously difficult to measure - and yet this is precisely the size range of importance in industrial (1-10 nm) and biological (0.1-1 nm) processes.'

Scientists in CAMS will use positrons to characterise nanoscale materials, including atomic and molecular gases, polymers, insulators, semiconductors, thin films and surfaces, and to develop novel, nanostructured materials. The Centre will forge a unique and effective scientific team for state-of-the-art studies of the nano-world that underlies many everyday processes and new technologies.

Examples of applications of positrons in materials science and technology include:

• the design of bio-encapsulation materials for controlled drug delivery, to minimise the side effects of pharmaceuticals;
• the design of new, controlled-porosity membranes for water filtration and desalination, food encapsulation and gas separation; and
• the detection of cracks and defects that lead to the degradation and failure of materials in critical locations.

Positrons also have many applications in medical and bioscience. For example, they are widely used as a diagnostic tool in medicine through the application of Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scans to detect cancers. This is a mature technology based around the injection into the body of a small amount of a positron-emitting, radioactive isotope, attached to a carrier molecule such as glucose. Little is known about the fundamental interactions that occur between these positrons and the molecules and cells that make up our bodies, despite the fact that it is these interactions that underpin this technology.

Approximately $3 million will come to Murdoch to fund the world-leading atomic collisions group whose role is to provide theoretical support to the research effort of the Centre.

'Thus far our work has found application in diverse fields of astrophysics, fusion and lighting. I am very excited about now extending our research to the materials and health sciences,' said Professor Bray.

'Much of modern-day research and development is done on supercomputers, and here in Perth we have been particularly fortunate with almost $4 million awarded this year to developing local supercomputer infrastructure. This is vitally important not just for the researchers, but also for the younger generations who rightly expect to be successful on the world stage.'