Physicists at CERN have taken a big step towards making the first spectroscopic measurements on a beam of antihydrogen atoms. The antihydrogen atoms, which consist of an antielectron orbiting an antiproton, were made by members of the lab's ASACUSA group. The beams could be used to carry out the first detailed studies of the energy levels in antihydrogen.
Measuring in detail the energy levels in antihydrogen is important because the Standard Model of particle physics says they should be identical to those of hydrogen. Any slight differences in the "fine structure" of the levels compared to ordinary hydrogen could shed light on why there is so much more matter than antimatter in the universe.
The breakthrough comes just weeks after researchers in the ALPHA collaboration at CERN succeeded in trapping 38 antihydrogen atoms for about 170 ms.This was the first time that antimatter atoms had been stored for long enough to measure their properties in detail and, taken together, the two results represent major advances in studies of antimatter.
by:
Sailes Bataju
BSc. 1st year
Measuring in detail the energy levels in antihydrogen is important because the Standard Model of particle physics says they should be identical to those of hydrogen. Any slight differences in the "fine structure" of the levels compared to ordinary hydrogen could shed light on why there is so much more matter than antimatter in the universe.
The breakthrough comes just weeks after researchers in the ALPHA collaboration at CERN succeeded in trapping 38 antihydrogen atoms for about 170 ms.This was the first time that antimatter atoms had been stored for long enough to measure their properties in detail and, taken together, the two results represent major advances in studies of antimatter.
by:
Sailes Bataju
BSc. 1st year
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