History Main / Antimatter

* A blatant misuse of the term appears in the original 60s ''[[Series:Batman Batman]]'' film. The villains de-hydrate some of their mooks and smuggle them into the batcave, where they are re-hydrated. A single punch from Batman or Robin makes them instantly disappear because of flaws in the re-hydration process. Batman's scientific opinion? They were reduced to "anti matter".

* A blatant misuse of the term appears in the original 60s ''[[Series/Batman Batman]]'' film. The villains de-hydrate some of their mooks and smuggle them into the batcave, where they are re-hydrated. A single punch from Batman or Robin makes them instantly disappear because of flaws in the re-hydration process. Batman's scientific opinion? They were reduced to "anti matter".

* A blatant misuse of the term appears in the original 60s ''Batman'' film. The villains de-hydrate some of their mooks and smuggle them into the batcave, where they are re-hydrated. A single punch from Batman or Robin makes them instantly disappear because of flaws in the re-hydration process. Batman's scientific opinion? They were reduced to "anti matter".

* In ''ShadowtheHedgehog'', the "Diablo" mech has an attack called "antimatter cannon" which looks more like an expanding energy field.

Antiparticles do exist naturally; however, antimatter normally only exists for brief moments before coming in contact with normal matter, and it can only be formed as a product of radioactive decay, or when particles collide at very high speeds. When electrons encounter positrons, both particles mutually annihilate and emit gamma radiation.[[hottip:* :At high energy, they can produce other stuff.]] When protons and neutrons encounter antiprotons and antineutrons, they also annihilate, resulting in a star of pions shooting out. These ultimately decay into high-energy gamma radiation. The result is many times more powerful than nuclear fusion (relative to its mass; it's the purest example of Einstein's famous equation E = mc[[superscript:2]]). However, it's been theorized that antimatter might form more often in other universes without positive matter to take it out.

This theory led to speculation on what those universes could be like. In fiction, they usually take the form of a BizarroUniverse or a MirrorUniverse. The explosive aspect of antimatter is also common, usually in the form of [[EarthShatteringKaboom planet-destroying weapons]]. Alternatively, controlled matter/anti-matter reactions could be used as a source of power. Of course, instances in which a series gets the known properties of antimatter [[DidNotDoTheResearch completely wrong]] are also not uncommon.

Antimatter is often used as either a fuel or a weapon in fiction, both cases due to its high energy potential.

* Antimatter is used in explosives in ''SchlockMercenary'', usually consisting of minuscule amounts of antimatter encased in a containment field- just exposing it to ordinary matter will cause a massive explosion. Notably, Kevyn turned his uniform insignia into an antimatter grenade, which [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20050604.html when used]], destroyed an entire enemy base, and though indirectly, brought down ''a spaceship in orbit of the planet''.

** In ''StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "The Alternative Factor", there are two versions of Lazarus, one made of matter from our universe and one made of antimatter from a parallel universe. If they ever get together in either universe, both universes will be destroyed. Note that this would not happen in real life.

* Traditional capship power source, in the ''WingCommander'' universe. Also used on the Excaliber and its descendant, the Dragon.

* Antimatter is used in explosives in ''SchlockMercenary'', usually consisting of minuscule amounts of antimatter encased in a containment field- just exposing it to ordinary matter will cause a massive explosion. Notably, Kevyn turned his uniform insignia into an antimatter grenade, which when used, destroyed an entire enemy base, and though indirectly, brought down ''a spaceship in orbit of the planet''.

* PET scans rely on antimatter to work. The subject is injected with a tracer substance that emits positrons into the body. When the positrons annihilate nearby electrons in the body gamma rays are released that the machine can detect.

* Antimatter is central to ''TroperWorks/ThePentagonWar''. Hyper Bombs require 250 kilograms of positrons, and the starship ''Mercurand'' carries 100 tonnes of antihydrogen as fuel.

* A recent ''CthulhuTech'' supplement had a weapon fired antimatter at relativistic speeds after burning a vacuum in the air with a laser. [[{{Discontinuity}} Maybe...]]

* Perhaps the most famous depiction of antimatter in anime is that of {{Evangelion}} Unit 01 shooting down the [[AlienGeometries Alien Geometry]] Angel Remiel with a giant positronic sniper rifle. The fact the beam should explode as soon as it hits the air is glossed over in the show, but [[AllThereInTheManual supplementery materials]] suggest the positrons are "jacketed" with a neutrino field.
** Wouldn't it have been easier to just say an AT Field did it? They can do weirder things then that anyway.

* The title SuperRobot of ''CannonGodExaxxion'' is powered by an antimatter reactor. According to the BackStory, the aliens who created it where said to have found an entire asteroid made of the stuff, which they harvested for fuel untill its orbit decayed and it crashed into the nearest planet and practically wiped out their civilization.

*** Actually ... Lasers fire photons witch are at the same time bout particle and antiparticle.

* ''TheGiantClaw'' has an antimatter sheild that destroys anything the military fires at it. [[FridgeLogic Why it doesn't explode the air is never addressed]].
* A blatany misuse of the term appears in the original 60s ''Batman'' film. The villains de-hydrate some of their mooks and smuggle them into the batcave, where they are re-hydrated. A single punch from Batman or Robin makes them instantly disappear because of flaws in the re-hydration process. Batman's scientific opinion? They were reduced to "anti matter".

*** It means they'll be obliterated, silly.

* {{GURPS}}: Ultratech briefly discusses antimatter. One microgram is enough to vaporize a normal human and incredibly expensive. There are also stats for ''antimatter bullets''.
* A recent CthulhuTech supplement had a weapon fired antimatter at relativistic speeds after burning a vacuum in the air with a laser. [[{{Discontinuity}} Maybe...]]
* In TranshumanSpace, antimatter is manufactured on Mercury, using solar energy to drive the particle accelerators, and used among other things to catalyse the most advanced fusion drives.

* WordOfGod states that the Legendary {{Pokemon}} Giratina is supposed to be the living personification of antimatter, and that it and its world are constructed of antimatter.
** Except when you send it into battle, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation it doesn't explode and kill everything in the vicinity]].
** This is flat-out confirmed by Cynthia's speech during the Sinjoh Ruins event in [=HeartGold=] and [=SoulSilver=].
** Functionally, Giratina [[JustifiedTrope SWITCHES FORMS]] when in your world - Earth (or Poke-Earth, whatever) - and its original state only occurs in its own world, unless you go back into its world and bring back the [[AppliedPhlebotinum Griseous Orb]], which lets it retain its natural form.
* Traditional capship power source, in the WingCommander universe. Also used on the Excaliber and its descendant, the Dragon.
* In {{Sword of the Stars}}, Antimatter is the final level of reactor technology development. Strangely, however, M/AM ships have very small explosions compared to normal ones, even though Antimatter is far more destructive when uncontained.
** Not necessarily, in space that is. The initial explosion lets it out of the ships engines (if the containment is breached at all) and then it only "explodes" in contact with other matter - which would usually mean a very slow, slow annihilation as they meet the few non-anti particles in open space. Sounds like a good reason to forbid antimatter craft to land on planets though...

* The Mondays, the evil versions of TheSecretSaturdays, supposedly come from an antimatter universe. The episode that introduces them gets the properties of antimatter wrong.
** More specifically, it does not 'get them wrong', but rather completely make them up. Basically, "Mirror Universe" and causing the laws of physics to become corrupted describes it effectively. And this is a show that actually had some impressive sci-fi concepts.
** They actuelly use the real effect of AntiMatter when [[spoiler: Argost absorbs the AntiMatter powers of Zak Monday and the Matter powers of Zak Saturday, despite Zak's warnings not to do so.]] [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcFGem3t4Fs He should've listened.]]

** Wouldn't it have been easier to just said an AT-Field did it? They can do weirder things then that anyway.

* The Combine in Half-life 2 and it's episodes use an antimatter Assault Rifle which can also fire balls of antimatter traveling at high speeds and vaporizing any organic materials in it's way (besides the person who fired the shot off), and they also use an antimatter reactor (called a dark energy reactor), when it goes unstable it creates a superportal and an explosion comparable in power to a nuke, in Portal this tech is also used as a power source by Aperture Science, only they don't say it's made of Antimatter.

* Antimatter is central to ''ThePentagonWar''. Hyper Bombs require 250 kilograms of positrons, and the starship ''Mercurand'' carries 100 tonnes of antihydrogen as fuel.

* ''[[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Gy9ZnStUKs&feature=related The Specialists]]'', of a series of shorts on MTV's LiquidTelevision, met their antimatter counterparts, who were chromatically opposite but otherwise identical. Typically, the short plays loose with the properties of antimatter.

* The tendency of antimatter to annihilate air molecules it comes in contact with is actually used in ''GundamSEED'', where the CoolShip fires its positron canons ahead of it when heading back into space to clear out air resistance. How they avoid blowing up the ship itself in the process is never really explained.

* In Alastair Reynolds' ''RevelationSpace'' (and its [[TheVerse universe]]), antimatter weapons are small, hard to get, and ''extremely'' destructive; one character has the bombs ''implanted in his eyes'' (the eyes are artificial) and can destroy the planet. Since Reynolds is an astronomer and writes fairly [[SlidigScaleOfSciFiHardness hard]] science fiction (except for the LovecraftianHorror elements), this is all pretty well justified.

** One of the novels, ''The Backup Spaceport'', features new ''Stiletto''-class [[SpaceFighter Space Fighters]] powered by an antimatter reactor (all reactors before were fusion-based). The difference is that it does not use regular antimatter but the so-called "Vetletsky antiparticles", which only react with tritium. This ensures that, even if antimatter containment is lost during battle, the ship is not destroyed by matter/antimatter reaction.\

** One of the novels, ''The Backup Spaceport'', features new ''Stiletto''-class [[SpaceFighter Space Fighters]] powered by an antimatter reactor (all reactors before were fusion-based). The difference is that it does not use regular antimatter but the so-called "Vetletsky antiparticles", which only react with tritium. This ensures that, even if antimatter containment is lost during battle, the ship is not destroyed by matter/antimatter reaction.