History Main / Antimatter

** In the setting, military starships are propelled by matter-antimatter reactions created by combining antiprotons with hydrogen atoms. The stations that produce them are often located around high-energy stars for solar power and are high-value targets in wartime. Antimatter is also used as a weapon similar to nukes, but are much rarer in comparison and strictly regulated. Still, they're common enough that a single mid-sized private company can get their hands on at least several of them, if Parasini's description of the Noveria Development Corporation's "sterilization" procedures are any indication. [[GodzillaThreshold The worst case scenario]] involves vaporizing the affected compound with antimatter warheads from orbital battle stations.

** In the setting, military starships are propelled by matter-antimatter reactions created by combining antiprotons with hydrogen atoms. The stations that produce them are often located around high-energy stars for solar power and are high-value targets in wartime. Antimatter is also used as a weapon similar to nukes, but are much rarer in comparison and strictly regulated.

* Creator/GregBear's Forge of God has the Earth destroyed by two mass, one of neutronium and the other of anti-neutronium. These orbit the earth, inside it, until they meet. The anti-neutronium one does cause some problems from the energy released as it plows through the inside of the Earth, but once the two masses collide, the energy released is [[EndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt greater than Earth's gravitation binding energy]]. In it's sequel Anvil of Stars, some fighter ships, and pilots, are turned to anti-matter by the baddies. They figured it out when one tried to dock with the main ship. The others slowly died because anti-matter isn't suited for living things, but they hung around long enough for the protagonist's love interest to say [[TearJerker good-bye]].

* The retconned Marvel ScienceHero Blue Marvel is a 50's era "living antimatter generator" which basically makes him a Superman with the ability most forms of energg. He got his powers from a FreakLabAccident studying AnotherDimension where positive and negative matter can coexist without destroying each other he dubbed "The Neutral Zone".

* An episode of ''Franchise/TransformersGeneration1'' has Megatron steal an "antimatter formula" in order to turn himself into "the most powerful weapon in the universe". The end result being that his laser beams were slightly more destructive than usual, but the power ends up nearly destroying him in the process.

* The Mondays, the evil versions of ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'', supposedly come from an antimatter MirrorUniverse, which somehow has "corrupted" laws of physics. Matter from the two universes violently exploding on contact only occurs 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.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcFGem3t4Fs He should've listened.]]

* The Mondays, the evil versions of ''WesternAnimation/TheSecretSaturdays'', supposedly come from an antimatter universe. "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 actually 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.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WcFGem3t4Fs He should've listened.]]

** Cut content from ''VideoGame/MassEffect2 has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGKQhuDW6B4 groundskeeper]] saying admiring things about a potent quarian drink called "thruster fuel", which obviously can't be made out of what he speculates.

* The novelization of ''Film/TheBlackHole'' describes the "USS Cygnus" as being powered by matter-antimatter annihilation, four of her engines being described by [[MadScientists Reinhardt]] as able to give as much energy as the one used in Earth in a year [[spoiler: increased damage to them caused by the destruction of the "USS Palomino" is what ultimately dooms it, as the working ones cannot produce enough energy for the field protecting the ship of the black hole's tidal forces despite Reinhardt ordering increases of their [[TimTaylorTechnology power output]]]]

* ''Literature/TheWorldAtTheEndOfTime'' by Creator/FrederikPohl: Human intestellar ships use matter-antimatter annihilation as power source, and together with [[SolarSail Solar Sails]] as propulsion. [[spoiler: hundreds of years later in the colony's timeframe one of those ships, the "Ark" blows up due to matter-antimatter annihilation causing things go ''really'' pear-shaped for the main protagonist]].
* The novelization of ''Film/TheBlackHole'' describes the "USS Cygnus" as being powered by matter-antimatter annihilation, four of her engines being able to give as much energy as the one produced in Earth anually [[spoiler: increased damage to them caused by the destruction of the "USS Palomino" is what ultimately dooms it, as the working ones cannot produce enough energy for the field protecting the ship of the black hole's tidal forces despite Reinhardt's ask for [[TimTaylorTechnology more power]]]]

* The novelization of ''Film//TheBlackHole'' describes the "USS Cygnus"' as being powered by matter-antimatter annihilation, four of her being able to give as much energy as the one produced in Earth anually [[spoiler: increased damage to her engines caused by the destruction of the "USS Palomino" is what dooms it, as the working ones cannot produce enough energy for the field protecting the ship of the black hole's tidal forces despite Reinhardt's ask for [[TimTaylorTechnology more power]].]]

* Antimatter is the fuel of choice for starships in ''VideoGame/StarControl'' and mentioned by Commander Hayes to be expensive to make -however the Melnorme sells it quite cheaply-. It serves also as weapon in the Umgah ships, said to use antimatter cones, and especially the Utwig bomb [[spoiler: that you must use to destroy the Sa-Matra]], and oddly enough can be found as an exotic ore on certain planets.

One of the big mysteries concerning the Big Bang has been why there is so much matter in the universe but not nearly as much antimatter, since all known processes for creating massive particles create both in equal quantities. The weak interaction (that describes processes like beta radioactive decay and such -- it's also where the now famous Higgs mechanism takes place) explains how there might be a small imbalance in the amounts of matter and antimatter, but that imbalance is not nearly enough to explain the existence of... nearly everything we care about. The strong interaction (that describes how protons can stick together in a nucleus even if they have positive charge) would be a nice candidate to do it, but that's much more easily said than done. So, yeah, we have no idea.

* Antimatter in the form of antineutrinos is very common; it can be produced by many nuclear reactions. However, neutrinos tend to ignore normal matter. And when we say "ignore", consider this: The nuclear reactions taking place in the core of the sun produce both light and neutrinos. The ''light'' takes somewhere between 10,000 and 170,000 years to work its way to the sun's surface. The ''neutrinos'', on the other hand, exit the sun at the speed of light without interacting with any of the material in the way ''at all.''

* Some stories from the ''Franchise/StarWarsExpandedUniverse'' feature [[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Positronic_processor positronic processors]] (likely an Asimov ShoutOut).

* Asimov's positronic robot brains are retained in some films based on his work (''Film/IRobot'', ''Film/BicentennialMan'').

* In ''Fanfic/AChampionInEarthBet'', the Avatar uses a tinkertech antimatter weapon during his fight with the Simurgh. Because of said weapon, their battle ''begins'' with an explosion that causes the (parallel, uninhabited) Earth below them to lose its spherical shape, unleashing a firestorm that advances across its entire surface, and ''ends'' with an explosion that ''vaporizes'' the planet, and melts the side of the Moon facing it from hundreds of thousands of miles away.

* In ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'', Unit 01 shoots down the [[AlienGeometries Alien Geometry]] Angel Ramiel 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 supplementary materials]] suggest the positrons are "jacketed" with a neutrino field. This [[TechnoBabble makes no sense]] [[VoodooShark at all]], but [[MST3KMantra let's all just go with it]].

** [[CatchPhrase He's the man who makes the impossible possible.]]

* Creator/DCComics:

* [[ComicBook/XMen Angel's]] EvilUncle, Burtram Worthington aka the Dazzler, is a GadgeteerGenius that marked his mooks with special particles he can track. He's also capable of remotely transmuting those particles into antimatter to vaporize anyone that betrays him. Besides the fact that enough antimatter to obliterate the mass of person would also obliterate everything around them for miles if not the whole planet, it's safe to say if he wasn't so into the villainy, he could easily [[CutLexLuthorACheck turn a profit]] from ''remotely generating antimatter''.

*** And in the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS2E13Obsession Obsession]]", it's used for a demolition charge. One ounce of antimatter reacting with matter supposedly produces an explosion that [[EarthShatteringKaboom blows half the atmosphere off an Earth-like planet]]. While the basic idea of an antimatter bomb isn't too far off, the numbers certainly are; in reality, an ounce of antimatter annihilating an ounce of normal matter would, as a bomb, have a yield of only a couple of megatons. You'd need at least some millions of ''tonnes'' of antimatter to get the kind of effect they describe. (Kirk mentions to Spock in this episode that he would hope weapons would not get more advanced than this.)

* An episode of ''{{WesternAnimation/Transformers}}'' has, in a display of the show's usual disregard for science, Megatron steal an "antimatter formula" in order to turn himself into "the most powerful weapon in the universe". The end result being that his laser beams were slightly more destructive than usual, but the power ends up nearly destroying him in the process.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

-->'''Giller:''' What is that?
-->'''Juu:''' Antimatter. '''3 kg''' of them.
-->When Giller ask how he found that many antimatter, he replied that human's technology develop exponentially during war times, making it
-->possible to gather such stellar amount of antimatter

[[folder:ComicBooks]]

[[folder:{{Film}}]]

[[folder:{{Literature}}]]

** Given some of Asimov's descriptions of how positronic brains worked, it would have been entirely reasonable to {{retcon}} these positrons as merely holes (in the semiconductor sense) - especially considering that Dirac's view of positrons as "holes in the sea of negative-energy electrons" was still pretty kosher when Asimov started writing his robot stories.

* Aside from occasional use in weapons and as a power source, ''Literature/PerryRhodan'' once featured aliens from an antimatter ''universe'' as peaceful but explosive visitors. (The science was a bit dodgy at the time, with any given chemical element supposedly only reacting with its corresponding anti-element...but the destructive potential of unprotected contact was played to the hilt.)
** Positronic computers also see widespread use, again as a clear hommage to the works of Isaac Asimov.

[[folder:LiveActionTV]]
* An episode of ''Series/LostInSpace'' also had an evil counterpart of John Robinson (played by the same actor) from an antimatter universe, but no explosions.
* The ''Series/DoctorWho'' serial ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E2PlanetOfEvil Planet of Evil]]'' also features antimatter treated more as a radioactive substance than an explosive one.
** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS9E4TheMutants The Mutants]]'', the Doctor claims that an antimatter explosion will turn everyone into "un-people un-doing un-things un-together," which is an awfully convoluted way of saying "dead."
** Omega in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS10E1TheThreeDoctors The Three Doctors]]'' is trapped in an antimatter universe on the other side of a black hole. Handwaved in that the Doctor and friends are "processed" in some way when they go through the black hole--Dr. Tyler, the physicist, explains that they shouldn't even be there at all!

[[folder:{{Music}}]]

[[folder:TabletopGames]]

* One of the most powerful offensive spells in ''TabletopGame/{{Rifts}}'' creates a small magic sphere full of antimatter and hurls it at the target. It is quite fittingly called "Annihilate", as only the most powerful tanks or HumongousMecha are likely to survive getting hit by it.

[[folder:VideoGames]]

[[folder:{{Webcomics}}]]
* Antimatter is used in explosives in ''Webcomic/SchlockMercenary'', usually consisting of minuscule amounts of antimatter encased in fullerene molecules - breaking these up will cause a massive explosion. Most notably, a minor character once smuggled antimatter out of a facility in paper bags and unwittingly almost caused an entire habitat to blow up. Resident MadScientist Kevyn turned his uniform insignia into a pair of antimatter grenades, [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-05-31 one of which]] uses some antimatter to penetrate DeflectorShields and the rest to blow up something the size of a tank, [[http://www.schlockmercenary.com/d/20050604.html the other]] destroyed an enemy base, and though indirectly, brought down ''a spaceship in orbit of the planet''.
** Antimatter is considered inferior as both a weapon and a fuel; it's fail-unsafe, warheads using it can't regulate their blast power the way an annie-plant[[note]]Neutronium-fueled gravitic-annihilation powerplant[[/note]] can, and neutronium for annie-plants is ''much'' easier to make.

[[folder:WebOriginal]]
* ''Roleplay/DarwinsSoldiers'' has an Anti-matter universe. The ability of this universe to interact with our matter universe is [[AppliedPhlebotinum dependent on plot necessity]].

[[folder:WesternAnimation]]

[[folder:RealLife]]
* Antimatter may sound rare and extremely dangerous, but actually it's quite common. For example, beta decay, one of the ways that natural radioactive elements slowly radiate away, always produces antiparticles. Powerful enough gamma radiation ie photons may also create positron-electron pairs upon being absorbed. The reason this doesn't cause a catastrophe is that the masses involved are absolutely minuscule. For example, it takes six times ten to the power of twenty six protons to make a gram. That's about how many grains of sand are estimated to be in the Sahara Desert.

* The main problem in the ''Seetee'' novels (contra-terrene=C.T.=seetee) is building a "bedplate" device that allows matter and antimatter to play nice together through [[AntiGravity paragravity effects,]] so they can build a refinery for antimatter ores, antimatter pickaxes with regular handles, etc (antimatter acts just like regular matter, forming planets, asteroids, and suchlike). While a "permanent paragravity magnet" is theoretically possible, nobody can figure out what metal will hold the charge forever. At least until the protagonist finds a FlyingSaucer that's 50% terrene and contraterrene, thst is...

* The main problem in the ''Seetee'' novels (contra-terrene=C.T.=seetee) is building a "bedplate" device that allows matter and antimatter to play nice together through [[AntiGravity paragravity effects,]] so they can build a refinery for antimatter ores, antimatter pickaxes with regular handles, etc (antimatter acts just like regular matter, forming planets,asteroids, and suchlike). While a "permanent paragravity magnet" is theoretically possible, nobody can figure out what metal will hold the charge forever. At least until the protagonist finds a FlyingSaucer that's 50% terrene and contraterrene, thst is...

* The primary MacGuffin in Dan Brown's ''Literature/AngelsAndDemons'' is an Antimatter bomb. Also, read [[http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/en/Spotlight/SpotlightAandD-en.html CERN's commentary on the book]], it's quite enlightening.

*** Which should not damage a starship with working DeflectorShields. Antiprotons would have no reason to interact explosively with an EM field (or a graviton field, depending on which fluff explanation you prefer), although they would certainly wreak havoc if they touched the hull underneath.

* In ''VideoGame/MetroidPrime 2'', the Annihilator Beam, appropriately enough, is stated to fire an annihilation reaction of matter and antimatter.

* In ''Franchise/MassEffect'', military starships are propelled by matter-antimatter reactions created by combining antiprotons with hydrogen atoms. The stations that produce them are often located around high-energy stars for solar power and are high-value targets in wartime. Antimatter is also used as a weapon similar to nukes, but are much rarer in comparison and strictly regulated.
** Cut content from the second game has a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGKQhuDW6B4 groundskeeper]] saying admiring things about a potent quarian drink called "thruster fuel", which obviously can't be made out of what he speculates.

* In ''VideoGame/WingCommander'', [=M/AM=] plants are the primary powerplant for capital ships, and also serve to power the ''Excalibur'' and ''Dragon'' superfighters in [=WC3=] and [=WC4=], respectively.

** The tendency of antimatter to annihilate air molecules it comes in contact with is actually used, where the CoolShip fires its positron cannons ahead of it when heading back into space to clear out air resistance. Called, "Positronic Interference."