A small amount of mass can produce a great deal of energy and so given enough antimatter a large explosion could indeed be created. When a proton (hydrogen) meets an anti-proton (antihydrogen) they annihilate each other, converting their mass into energy by Einstein’s equation E = mc 2, where c is the speed of light and m is the total mass converted.
So a hand-held device like that shown in the film is not yet plausible. High-temperature plasmas can be safely isolated within a high vacuum apparatus using strong magnetic fields but this is something that needs a lot of power and complex vacuum systems. In the film the antimatter (probably antihydrogen) would consist of charged nuclei, like a sort of plasma. However the lifetimes of these particles are very short: you can’t simply bottle the products! You would have to isolate the antimatter because if it came into contact with ordinary matter they would immediately annihilate each other.
Is this possible, and could you really make a bomb from antimatter? Exotic particlesĬERN accelerates and collides particles at fantastic energies to produce all sorts of exotic particles, including antiparticles.
In one scene we see the collider making, isolating and storing the antimatter in what looks like a hand-held battery-powered magnetic vacuum flask. Meanwhile the ancient order of the Illuminati is threatening to blow them up using ‘antimatter’ recently stolen from CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. In the film Angels and Demons, the recent death of the pope has brought together a special meeting of cardinals in Rome.
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