How do you make antiprotons? What is the reaction that makes antiprotons? I'm not a physicist so I might not understand the shorthand.
 A: One method is to strike a nickel drum-shaped target with a 120 GeV proton beam taken from the main injector in a particle accelerator. The target must be rotating quickly to prevent the beam from hitting the same spot continuously, which would result in destruction of the target. This collision with the target produces many particles, a small percentage of which are antiprotons.
The particles fly off at many angles and have to be focused to fit into the relatively small beamline. Since this focusing can’t be done with conventional quadrapole magnets, a lithium lens is often used, as the low atomic mass of lithium prevents scattering of the antiprotons.
After passing though the lens the the positive particles are separated from the negative particles (including the antiprotons) with a pulsed magnet. The negative particles are sent down the beamline. The negatively charged particles consist of antiprotons, pions and other short-lived particles. After some time the other particles decay away and the antiprotons are left.
