Physicists at Northwestern University have successfully trapped a single positron for an entire month, allowing researchers to study its quantum properties with unprecedented precision. "Further investigations using the trap might reveal the secret of why the world around us is made of matter and no...

Physicists at Northwestern University have successfully trapped a single positron for an entire month, allowing researchers to study its quantum properties with unprecedented precision. "Further investigations using the trap might reveal the secret of why the world around us is made of matter and no...

Physicists at Northwestern University have held a single positron -- the antimatter twin of the electron -- in a trap for months and manipulated it one quantum jump at a time. They call their setup a ‘one-positron quantum cyclotron.’

You can't hold antimatter in your hand or even in a regular laboratory apparatus. As soon as antimatter meets matter, the two tend to annihilate each other. This makes studying antimatter tricky. But now physicists have managed to trap a single subatomic particle of the stuff for months at a time in a way that allows them to study its quantum states.