Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN

PR21.10 - 17.11.2010


Geneva, 17 November 2011. The ALPHA experiment at CERN* has taken an important step forward in developing techniques to understand one of the Universe’s open questions: is there a difference between matter and antimatter? In a paper published in Nature today, the collaboration shows that it has successfully produced and trapped atoms of antihydrogen. This development opens the path to new ways of making detailed measurements of antihydrogen, which will in turn allow scientists to compare matter and antimatter.



Antimatter – or the lack of it – remains one of the biggest mysteries of science. Matter and its counterpart are identical except for opposite charge, and they annihilate when they meet. At the Big Bang, matter and antimatter should have been produced in equal amounts. However, we know that our world is made up of matter: antimatter seems to have disappeared. To find out what has happened to it, scientists employ a range of methods to investigate whether a tiny difference in the properties of matter and antimatter could point towards an explanation.



One of these methods is to take one of the best-known systems in physics, the hydrogen atom, which is made of one proton and one electron, and check whether its antimatter counterpart, antihydrogen, consisting of an antiproton and a positron, behaves in the same way. CERN is the only laboratory in the world with a dedicated low-energy antiproton facility where this research can be carried out.



The antihydrogen programme goes back a long way. In 1995, the first nine atoms of man-made antihydrogen were produced at CERN. Then, in 2002, the ATHENA and ATRAP experiments showed that it was possible to produce antihydrogen in large quantities, opening up the possibility of conducting detailed studies. The new result from ALPHA is the latest step in this journey.



Antihydrogen atoms are produced in a vacuum at CERN, but are nevertheless surrounded by normal matter. Because matter and antimatter annihilate when they meet, the antihydrogen atoms have a very short life expectancy. This can be extended, however, by using strong and complex magnetic fields to trap them and thus prevent them from coming into contact with matter. The ALPHA experiment has shown that it is possible to hold on to atoms of antihydrogen in this way for about a tenth of a second: easily long enough to study them. Of the many thousands of antiatoms the experiment has created, ALPHA’s latest paper reports that 38 have been trapped for long enough to study.



"For reasons that no one yet understands, nature ruled out antimatter. It is thus very rewarding, and a bit overwhelming, to look at the ALPHA device and know that it contains stable, neutral atoms of antimatter,” said Jeffrey Hangst of Aarhus University, Denmark, spokesman of the ALPHA collaboration. “This inspires us to work that much harder to see if antimatter holds some secret.”



In another recent development in CERN’s antimatter programme, the ASACUSA experiment has demonstrated a new technique for producing antihydrogen atoms. In a paper soon to appear in Physical Review Letters, the collaboration reports success in producing antihydrogen in a so-called Cusp trap, an essential precursor to making a beam. ASACUSA plans to develop this technique to the point at which beams of sufficient intensity will survive for long enough to be studied.



“With two alternative methods of producing and eventually studying antihydrogen, antimatter will not be able to hide its properties from us much longer,” said Yasunori Yamazaki of Japan’s RIKEN research centre and a member of the ASACUSA collaboration. “There’s still some way to go, but we’re very happy to see how well this technique works.”



“These are significant steps in antimatter research,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, “and an important part of the very broad research programme at CERN.”



Full information about the ASACUSA approach will be made available when the paper is published.





For further information on the ALPHA experiment, please read here:

http://cerncourier.com/cws/article/cern/30577



Pictures available here:

http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1307522



Footage available here:

http://cdsweb.cern.ch/record/1307524



Contacts:

- CERN Press Office

press.office@cern.ch

+41 22 767 34 32

+41 22 767 63 33



- Jeffrey Hangst, ALPHA experiment spokesperson

+41 76 487 45 89



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* CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics. It has its headquarters in Geneva. At present, its Member States are Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. India, Israel, Japan, the Russian Federation, the United States of America, Turkey, the European Commission and UNESCO have Observer status.




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Another comment from Stephan Janouch on Automotive

wieder einmal ist ein Deutscher beim Schnellfahren ganz vorne mit dabei. Ich meine damit allerdings nicht unseren Formel-1-Weltmeister Sebastian Vettel, sondern Hansjörg von Gemmingen.

Der Name sagt Ihnen nichts? Kein Wunder, denn von Gemmingen ist nicht etwa Rennfahrer, sondern Aktienhändler. Und gleichzeitig einer der ersten Besitzer eines Tesla Roadsters in Europa. Im letzten Jahr hat er mit seinem Elektrogeschoss mehr als 65.000 km zurückgelegt - mehr als jeder andere Tesla-Fahrer in Europa.
Da das ganze relativ unspektakulär über die Bühne ging, ist man geneigt zu vermuten, dass die Kalifornier die ersten Kinderkrankheiten überwunden haben; vielleicht auch dank der Hilfe von Daimler und Toyota, die sich mittlerweile im Schulterschluss mit Tesla-Chef Elon Musk üben.

Erwachsen werden soll übrigens auch der 3. Elektronik automotive congress, der am 12. Mai 2011 in Ludwigsburg stattfinden wird. Noch haben Sie die Chance, sich daran zu beteiligen. Die Einreichungsfrist für Papers endet nächste Woche!


Stephan Janouch

The Atlas experiment and the sound of music

The ATLAS experiment and the world of music


The ATLAS experiment has already made headlines around the world for its research at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva. Now, after discovering that a large number of the physicists involved in the experiment are accomplished musicians, ATLAS has taken the unusual step of recording and releasing an album. This goes to prove there is far more to ATLAS scientists than investigating the origins of matter and the fundamental forces of nature.


Released on the ATLAS scientists' own label, Neutralino Records, which is named after a hypothetical particle predicted by a theory called supersymmetry in particle physics, "Resonance" features 20 artists over two CDs and a DVD.


For more information about "Resonance", please see here:

http://atlas-music-resonance.web.cern.ch/atlas-music-resonance/


For a complete press release and contact information, see here:

http://atlas-music-resonance.web.cern.ch/atlas-music-resonance/ATLAS-contact.htm



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