> Backgrounder: Scientists capture antimatter atoms

Document Tools

Contact:
Michael Hayden, SFU physics, 011 41 76 487 8861 (cell); mhayden@sfu.ca
Mohammad Dehghani Ashkezari, SFU physics, 011 41 76 487 5524
Marcello Pavan, TRIUMF, 604.222.7525; outreach@triumf.ca
Dixon Tam, PAMR, 778.782.8742; dixon_tam@sfu.ca

(Note: Both Michael and Mohammad are currently working at the CERN physics lab in Switzerland but are available for phone interviews. Michael is back in Canada on Nov. 22 and can be reached in his SFU office at 778.782.4845.)

No

Simon Fraser University physics PhD student Mohammad Dehghani Ashkezari and his supervisor professor Mike Hayden have done something that sounds like it came straight out of a science-fiction movie. They are part of an international team of scientists that has managed to capture and hold onto some atomic antimatter. Despite Hollywood plot lines that would have you believe otherwise, this is the first time anyone has actually managed this feat.

“Even though scientists have now been producing antihydrogen atoms for about 15 years, no one has ever managed to hang on to them. Within a tiny fraction of a second, the newly produced antimatter atoms collide with some ordinary matter and disappear in a flash,” Hayden explained. “We’ve managed to create a complicated magnetic bottle in which the antimatter can be stored, without ever touching the walls.”

Scientists from SFU and four other Canadian universities and research laboratories – University of B.C., University of Calgary, York University, and TRIUMF – are part of the ALPHA Collaboration based at CERN, in Geneva, Switzerland. Altogether, the collaboration involves about 40 scientists from eight countries (Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Israel, Japan, England, Ireland and Scotland). A paper describing the groundbreaking antimatter experiment was published online today in the science journal Nature (www.nature.com).

Antimatter – or more precisely the lack of antimatter in the universe – has puzzled physicists for decades. It is believed that equal amounts of matter and antimatter were produced in the early universe, but for some unknown reason matter won out. Almost nothing is left.

“Now that we can hold antimatter atoms in a bottle, it becomes possible to perform careful measurements of their properties. We plan to look for minute differences between matter and antimatter atoms. Even a small difference might give us a clue as to where the antimatter went,” said Hayden. “This experiment will address some truly fundamental questions about the universe.”

Nature science journal: http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nature09610.html

Comments

Comment Guidelines