National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) yesterday joined an international scientific research project aimed at looking for antimatter in space.
The university announced at a press conference yesterday that it will be joining the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) project led by Samuel C.C. Ting (丁肇中), connecting itself to academic circles at the international level.
NCKU president Kao Chiang (
Signing a collaborative agreement with Ting yesterday, Kao said the cooperation demonstrated the university's goal of keeping up with international academic circles.
Most scientists believe that about 15 billion years ago matter and antimatter were created in a gigantic Big Bang in equal amounts, at least according to existing theory. However, the absence of antimatter in our planet, the solar system, and our galaxy still puzzles scientists.
The existence, or absence, of antimatter is closely connected with the foundation of the theories of elementary particle physics. Some scientists, including Ting, speculate that matter and antimatter have been separated from each other to form different regions of the universe.
Therefore Ting decided to launch the AMS project, the first project in history that is devoted to looking for antimatter in space.
Results of the project, Kuo said, might earn Ting a second Nobel Prize.
In 1976, Ting shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Burton Richter for their pioneering work in the discovery of an unpredicted heavy particle -- the J particle. Since then a whole family of new particles has been found.
In 1998, the first Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, AMS01, captured data proving the existence of antimatter in space.
To further reveal secrets hidden at the birth of the universe, more than 400 scientists of 16 countries, including Taiwan, are now looking for more antimatter.
The ongoing AMS experiment on the International Space Station aims to perform accurate, long duration measurements of energetic-charged cosmic ray spectra in space.
Scientists from world-class scientific research institutes, including the European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) and US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), are building the AMS02, which is more sophisticated than the first one.
At the press conference yesterday, Ting said that main challenges of the experiment concerned to advanced technologies relating superconducting magnets and electronic instruments, which can function well at a low temperature in space.
"Taiwan scientists' past contributions to the project have been recognized by their counterparts from other countries," Ting said yesterday at the press conference.
Taiwan got involved with the AMS project in 1994, when the Academia Sinica and National Central University joined. In 1996, the National Science Council (NSC) began loaning its financial support to the endeavor.
The NSC's National Space Program Office and the Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology have also gotten on board.
Ting said yesterday that NCKU's achievement on advanced technologies pertaining to superconducting magnets would be crucial to the project.
Ting said that both Russia and the US tried to install superconducting magnets at absolute zero degrees to form a magnetic field in space for the research of antimatter, but failed.
RSS