An antiproton store is not an energy source — it is an energy-dense but extremely lossy battery. Every stored antiproton eventually annihilates with a proton, converting the full rest mass of both particles to energy:
E_pair = 2·m_p·c² ≈ 3.01×10⁻¹⁰ J per proton–antiproton pair
(≈ 1876.5 MeV — six orders of magnitude denser than chemical fuel per kg)
Trap population N obeys a simple balance between production, unavoidable loss to residual gas, and deliberate discharge into the converter:
dN/dt = R_prod − N/τ − D
τ = τ₀·(P₀/P) (better vacuum P → longer confinement time τ)
D = discharge fraction × N (only while "Feed to Converter" is ON)
The energy accounting is what actually matters for a "power plant": production is enormously energy-negative with current technology, because making an antiproton costs vastly more energy than annihilating it will ever return.
P_input = R_prod · E_pair / η_prod (accelerator draw)
P_recovered = D · E_pair · η_conv (converter output)
EROI = ∫P_recovered dt / ∫P_input dt
- Production rate — antiprotons/second the accelerator injects into the trap.
- Vacuum quality — lower residual-gas pressure means fewer stray collisions and a longer natural confinement time τ.
- Production technology — η_prod, how close the accelerator gets to the (currently unreachable) 100%-efficient ideal of "pay only E_pair per antiproton". Today's real machines sit near η_prod ≈ 10⁻¹⁰.
- Converter efficiency — η_conv, the fraction of released annihilation energy (mostly gamma photons and pions) actually captured as electricity rather than escaping as radiation.
- Feed to Converter — deliberately drains stored antiprotons into the converter core instead of letting them decay naturally against the trap walls.
Real-world relevance: CERN's Antiproton Decelerator produces roughly 10⁷ antiprotons per shot at an input-to-output energy ratio estimated around 10⁻¹⁰. Antimatter is a genuine energy-storage medium studied for deep-space propulsion and triggers, but "antimatter power plant" remains science fiction until production technology closes several orders of magnitude of gap — this simulator lets you dial that gap down and see what would have to change.