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Description and first application of a new technique to measure the gravitational mass of antihydrogen
- Source :
- Amole, C, Ashkezari, M D, Baquero-Ruiz, M, Bertsche, W, Butler, E, Capra, A, Cesar, C L, Charlton, M, Eriksson, S, Fajans, J, Friesen, T, Fujiwara, M C, Gill, D R, Gutierrez, A, Hangst, J S, Hardy, W N, Hayden, M E, Isaac, C A, Jonsell, S, Kurchaninov, L, Little, A, Madsen, N, McKenna, J T K, Menary, S, Napoli, S C, Nolan, P, Olin, A, Pusa, P, Rasmussen, C Ø, Robicheaux, F, Sarid, E, Silveira, D M, So, C, Thompson, R I, Van Der Werf, D P, Wurtele, J S, Zhmoginov, A I & Charman, A E 2013, ' Description and first application of a new technique to measure the gravitational mass of antihydrogen ', Nature Communications, vol. 4, 1785 . https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2787, Amole, C.; Ashkezari, M. D; Baquero-Ruiz, M.; Bertsche, W.; Butler, E.; Capra, A.; et al.(2013). Description and first application of a new technique to measure the gravitational mass of antihydrogen. Nature Communications, 4, 1785. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2787. UC Berkeley: UC Berkeley Library. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/5gt819mk, Nature Communications
- Publication Year :
- 2013
-
Abstract
- Physicists have long wondered whether the gravitational interactions between matter and antimatter might be different from those between matter and itself. Although there are many indirect indications that no such differences exist and that the weak equivalence principle holds, there have been no direct, free-fall style, experimental tests of gravity on antimatter. Here we describe a novel direct test methodology; we search for a propensity for antihydrogen atoms to fall downward when released from the ALPHA antihydrogen trap. In the absence of systematic errors, we can reject ratios of the gravitational to inertial mass of antihydrogen >75 at a statistical significance level of 5%; worst-case systematic errors increase the minimum rejection ratio to 110. A similar search places somewhat tighter bounds on a negative gravitational mass, that is, on antigravity. This methodology, coupled with ongoing experimental improvements, should allow us to bound the ratio within the more interesting near equivalence regime.<br />One intriguing question about antimatter that is yet to be directly answered is whether or not it behaves exactly the same as matter under gravity. Here, a direct experimental method is presented to measure the ratio of inertial to gravitational mass for antihydrogen under free-fall conditions.
- Subjects :
- Physics
Systematic error
Physics::General Physics
Multidisciplinary
010308 nuclear & particles physics
Other Fields of Physics
General Physics and Astronomy
General Chemistry
01 natural sciences
Article
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
Weak equivalence
Gravitation
Theoretical physics
Direct test
Antimatter
0103 physical sciences
Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Fajans [BRII recipient]
Inertial mass
010306 general physics
Antihydrogen
Equivalence (measure theory)
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Amole, C, Ashkezari, M D, Baquero-Ruiz, M, Bertsche, W, Butler, E, Capra, A, Cesar, C L, Charlton, M, Eriksson, S, Fajans, J, Friesen, T, Fujiwara, M C, Gill, D R, Gutierrez, A, Hangst, J S, Hardy, W N, Hayden, M E, Isaac, C A, Jonsell, S, Kurchaninov, L, Little, A, Madsen, N, McKenna, J T K, Menary, S, Napoli, S C, Nolan, P, Olin, A, Pusa, P, Rasmussen, C Ø, Robicheaux, F, Sarid, E, Silveira, D M, So, C, Thompson, R I, Van Der Werf, D P, Wurtele, J S, Zhmoginov, A I & Charman, A E 2013, ' Description and first application of a new technique to measure the gravitational mass of antihydrogen ', Nature Communications, vol. 4, 1785 . https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2787, Amole, C.; Ashkezari, M. D; Baquero-Ruiz, M.; Bertsche, W.; Butler, E.; Capra, A.; et al.(2013). Description and first application of a new technique to measure the gravitational mass of antihydrogen. Nature Communications, 4, 1785. doi: 10.1038/ncomms2787. UC Berkeley: UC Berkeley Library. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/5gt819mk, Nature Communications
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0bc1f512d68946dab8dad3e6d1e18267