Physicists have proposed an experiment, which could turn light into matter within the next 12 months.
In the experiement, the team from Imperial College London led by Oliver Pike hope to create an electron and a positron in a photon-photon collider, similar to the conversions from light to matter found in gamma ray bursts from stars.
In the experiment, electrons will be accelerated up to near the speed of light and then fired at a thin strip of gold to produce high-energy photons. A laser will produce a second source of high-energy photons, with the two combining to create the electrons and positrons.
The theory behind this experiment was first proposed 80 years ago by Breit and Wheeler, also at Imperial College, but the scientists believe that the conversion of energy between states of light and matter is now possible with modern technology following Einstein’s mass–energy equivalence (E=mc2).
The research was published in the latest issue of the journal Nature Photonics.
1 Comment
Hi,
“ Let There Be Matter” and there was. Light already is matter, photosynthesis being a good example. Matter is something that give resistance to being accelerated by a force. Gravity does this with light, so light is matter.