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March 7, 2012
Image above: Electrodes for the ALPHA Penning trap are inserted into the vacuum chamber and cryostat assembly. Positrons and antiprotons combine in the trap to form antihydrogen (Image: Niels Madsen ALPHA / Swansea).
In a paper published online today by the journal Nature, the ALPHA collaboration at CERN reports an important milestone on the way to measuring the properties of antimatter atoms. This follows news reported in June last year that the collaboration had routinely trapped antihydrogen atoms for long periods of time. ALPHA’s latest advance is the next important milestone on the way to being able to make precision comparisons between atoms of ordinary matter and atoms of antimatter, thereby helping to unravel one of the deepest mysteries in particle physics and perhaps understanding why a Universe of matter exists at all.
ALPHA experiment animation
Note:
CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.
The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.
Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 20 Member States.
Find out more:
CERN press release: http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2012/PR06.12E.html
ALPHA website: http://alpha-new.web.cern.ch/
Videos:
CERN news: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY02yPC8BEo
B-roll & interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taYkfEbep4w
Animation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY5Zdqxoc8U
Photos:
ALPHA spokesperson Jeffrey Hangst: http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1429653
The ALPHA facility: http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1307522
The Antiproton Decelerator: http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1349934
Image (mentioned), Animation, Text, Credit: CERN.
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