Antimatter is a particle physics term referring to material composed of antiparticles. In Assassination Classroom, it serves as the main component of the tentacle cells.
In Particle Physics[]
Antimatter is formed of antiparticles which have the same mass as particles but with opposite charge. For example, while a proton has a positive charge, an antiproton has a negative charge, and while an electron has a negative charge, a positron (antiparticle of electron) has a positive charge.
Like how an electron and a proton form a hydrogen atom, an antiproton and a positron can form an Antihydrogen atom. Antimatter in form of anti-atoms is extremely difficult to produce, but anti-particles can be produced by particles accelerators. If antimatter and matter encounter each other, both will be annihilated and there will be energy given out during the process in accordance with the equation E = mc2 .
A mere one tenth of a gram of antimatter puts out the same amount of energy as an atomic blast.
Assassination Classroom[]
In the series, antimatter is what Yanagisawa's research is focused on. In order to create a new source of energy, Yanagisawa secretly led some scientists to study a method to make antimatter grow in a human's body.
Korosensei (The former Reaper) became a guinea pig for this experiment; he had antimatter generating cells implanted in his body which continuously produced antimatter as long as he is alive. However, after Yanagisawa learned that in the moment the cell division stops, the antimatter generation cycle will continue and finally lead to a devastating chain reaction, he decided to kill Korosensei before the destruction of the Earth caused by a reaction once his cell division stops.