The Production and Study of Cold Antihydrogen

Harvard University, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

This award supports fundamental symmetry tests performed on neutral atoms of antimatter. The project is progressing towards accurate tests of Charge conjugation, Parity, and Time reversal (CPT) invariance with baryons and leptons using precise laser spectroscopy of cold, trapped antihydrogen, as well as investigating the gravitational force on antimatter atoms. Testing the most basic symmetries and notions of physics requires inventing new devices and methods involving atomic physics, plasma physics, nuclear physics, laser physics, non-linear and chaotic dynamics. Two basic methods for producing antihydrogen atoms have been demonstrated previously. The goal of this project is to produce and cool anti-atoms to energies at which they can be trapped for spectroscopy. The experiments are carried out at the CERN laboratory in Geneva, Switzerland at the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) storage ring, a unique and substantial facility built to allow such experiments. Methods to slow, capture and cool the needed antiprotons from the AD were developed as part of this research program. The broad impact of the program spans from the training of students to the impact of instrument design to the education of the public on antimatter physics. Undergraduate and graduate students are broadly trained in instrument design, experimental physics, and data analysis. Instruments designed for this research have been applied to ICR, NMR and MRI imaging, and trap designs are being used in devices that analyze pharmaceuticals and chemical compounds. The PI presents many scientific colloquiums, popular scientific lectures and high school presentations based upon this research each year.