21

Vittoria explains antimatter to Langdon, connecting his vague science-fiction familiarity to real physics. She describes antimatter as matter’s opposite, created alongside ordinary matter in the Big Bang, with reversed particle charges and a fundamental symmetry that echoes ideas of duality.

Kohler challenges the practicality of Leonardo Vetra’s work, questioning how antimatter could be separated and stored. Vittoria explains that her father used a reverse polarity vacuum and magnetic field to separate matter from antimatter, then reveals that the canisters hold visible amounts: five thousand nanograms of positron plasma.

Kohler remains skeptical until Vittoria describes the xenon-based process Leonardo used to produce far more antimatter than anyone had previously detected. After looking through a viewing device, Kohler is shaken and finally accepts that Leonardo succeeded. Langdon then looks and sees a tiny mercury-like globule suspended in the center of the canister.

Vittoria explains that antimatter must never touch matter, not even air, because contact causes instant annihilation. She reveals that the antimatter traps are her own design: airtight nanocomposite shells using opposing electromagnets to suspend the sample in mid-vacuum, powered by docking ports beneath each canister.

When Kohler asks what would happen if the magnetic field failed, Vittoria says the antimatter would fall, strike the canister, and annihilate. To demonstrate the reaction, she begins unscrewing a canister from its charging podium, causing Kohler to panic and knock her hands away.