Search

The ATHENA experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator facility at CERN aims at testing CPT symmetry with antihydrogen. An overview of the experiment, together with preliminary results of development towards the production of slow antihydrogen are reported.

The ATHENA apparatus that recently produced and detected the first cold antihydrogen atoms is described. Its main features, which are described herein, are: an external positron accumulator, making it possible to accumulate large numbers of positrons; a separate antiproton catching trap, optimizing the catching, cooling and handling of antiprotons; a unique high resolution antihydrogen annihilation detector, allowing an clear determination that antihydrogen has been produced; an open, modular design making variations in the experimental approach possible and a “nested” Penning trap situated in a cryogenic, 3T magnetic field environment used for the mixing of the antiprotons and positrons.

The Positron Accumulator for the ATHENA anti-hydrogen experiment at CERN, Geneva has recently been upgraded with a new 50 mCi 22Na β+-radioactive source. Following this, rapid progress has been made in optimizing and characterizing the properties of the positron plasma. The rotating wall technique has also been implemented in the accumulation region and has been shown to lead to compression of better than a factor of 10 in density and markedly increased lifetimes, even when using the N2 buffer gas as a cooling gas. Using these techniques we have routinely accumulated up to 2×108 positrons in a few minutes. The positron plasma has a FWHM of only 3–4 mm when using the rotating wall which compares with a FWHM of 15 mm without the rotating wall.

A theoretical underpinning of the standard model of fundamental particles and interactions is CPT invariance, which requires that the laws of physics be invariant under the combined discrete operations of charge conjugation, parity and time reversal. Antimatter, the existence of which was predicted by Dirac, can be used to test the CPT theorem—experimental investigations involving comparisons of particles with antiparticles are numerous1. Cold atoms and anti-atoms, such as hydrogen and antihydrogen, could form the basis of a new precise test, as CPT invariance implies that they must have the same spectrum. Observations of antihydrogen in small quantities and at high energies have been reported at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN)2 and at Fermilab3, but these experiments were not suited to precision comparison measurements. Here we demonstrate the production of antihydrogen atoms at very low energy by mixing trapped antiprotons and positrons in a cryogenic environment. The neutral anti-atoms have been detected directly when they escape the trap and annihilate, producing a characteristic signature in an imaging particle detector.

A positron accumulator based on a modified Penning-Malmberg trap has been constructed and undergone preliminary testing prior to being shipped to CERN in Geneva where it will be a part of an experiment to synthesize low-energy antihydrogen. It utilises nitrogen buffer gas to cool and trap a continuous beam of positrons emanating from a 22Na radioactive source. A solid neon moderator slows the positrons from the source down to epithermal energies of a few eV before being injected into the trap. It is estimated that around 108 positrons can be trapped and cooled to ambient temperature within 5 minutes in this scheme using a 10 mCi source.