Towards Precision Experiments with Antihydrogen
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
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People |
ORCID iD |
| William Bertsche (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Ahmadi M
(2018)
Characterization of the 1S-2S transition in antihydrogen.
in Nature
Ahmadi M
(2017)
Antihydrogen accumulation for fundamental symmetry tests.
in Nature communications
Ahmadi M
(2017)
Observation of the 1S-2S transition in trapped antihydrogen.
in Nature
Anderson EK
(2023)
Observation of the effect of gravity on the motion of antimatter.
in Nature
Baker C
(2024)
Measurements of Penning-Malmberg trap patch potentials and associated performance degradation
in Physical Review Research
Baker CJ
(2021)
Sympathetic cooling of positrons to cryogenic temperatures for antihydrogen production.
in Nature communications
Bertsche W
(2017)
Cold neutral atoms via charge exchange from excited state positronium: a proposal
in New Journal of Physics
Bertsche WA
(2018)
Prospects for comparison of matter and antimatter gravitation with ALPHA-g.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Madsen N
(2018)
Antiproton physics in the ELENA era.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
P. Perez
(2017)
Does antimatter fall up?
in CERN Courier
| Description | We have performed the first measurement of the antihydrogen 1S - 2S lineshape, lineshapes in the 1S-2P manifold, and an improvement of the hyperfine structure measurement of antihydrogen. These results have provided the first detailed comparison of hydrogen to antihydrogen and have set the tightest limit year of a direct CPT symmetry measurement. Progress has been more rapid than anticipated, and we have also been able to improve the measurement of the hyperfine structure further as well as demonstrate laser cooling of antihydrogen atoms. The success of this programme at ALPHA has also advanced out work on performing antimatter gravitation measurements, and we have built and are commissioning a machine to perform the first precision measurement of antimatter gravitational acceleration. |
| Exploitation Route | Findings are of use to the broader precision research community. Indeed, techniques involving performing precision measurements with trapped antihydrogen atoms over extremely long interrogation times are being viewed favourably by other precision measurement communities - including those working with hydrogen. Indeed, we may have spurred a general race towards better precision measurements that ultimately aim to probe the foundations of our universe. |
| Sectors | Other |
| URL | http://alpha.web.cern.ch/ |
| Description | The successful outcomes of the research programme on antihydrogen spectroscopy has generated numerous popular press articles. Successful measurements figure prominently in public outreach events conducted by researchers associated with this grant. In this sense, societal impact has been generated through numerous public engagement events both in the UK and internationally. Researchers participating in this research programme directly or indirectly benefit from training in a number of technical fields as well as in the fundamental concepts of the research itself. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Other |
| Impact Types | Societal |
| Description | Influenced policy on students at CERN |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Policy Influence Type | Implementation circular/rapid advice/letter to e.g. Ministry of Health |
| Impact | Our students benefit enormously from being permanently at CERN. They learn to work in an international environment at the largest physics lab in the world. Additionally they have the opportunity to contribute significantly and be a significant part of world-leading research. |
| Description | Published Book "Trapped Charged Particles A Graduate Textbook with Problems and Solutions" |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | We have used the text book at our winterschools on Physics with Trapped Charged Particles in 2015 and 2018 and will use it again in 2021. The students have expressed much appreciation for the quality of the book - and I'm aware of at least one lecturer who is basing their lecture-course on the book. |
| Description | Winterschool on Physics with Trapped Charged Particles 2012 |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | Every 3 years I organise a winterschool for PhD Students on the topic of trapped charged particles. The school hosts about 60 students, mostly from Europe, but with a scattering of people from north and south America as well as Asia. It is highly appreciated by everyone in the field and helps young researchers form a wide network in the field as well as of course learning about the field from internationally renowned researchers who join as speakers and tutors. We have done schools in January 2012,2015, 2018 and 2021. I've linked the most recent one below. The next one is planned for January 2024. |
| URL | https://indico.cern.ch/event/880180/overview |
| Description | EPSRC Strategic Equipment Grant |
| Amount | £993,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/R025363/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 03/2018 |
| End | 03/2022 |
| Description | Frequency metrology for precision measurements on matter antimatter symmetry |
| Amount | £1,515,048 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/T01086X/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2020 |
| End | 01/2025 |
| Description | Marie Curie International Training Network |
| Amount | € 3,848,976 (EUR) |
| Funding ID | 721559 |
| Organisation | European Commission |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | European Union (EU) |
| Start | 09/2017 |
| End | 09/2020 |
| Description | Precision Experiments with Antihydrogen |
| Amount | £3,512,405 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/V00137X/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2021 |
| End | 06/2025 |
| Description | Royal Society Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellow |
| Amount | £50,695 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | SRF\R1\201066 |
| Organisation | The Royal Society |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2021 |
| End | 01/2022 |
| Description | Towards Precision Experiments with Antihydrogen |
| Amount | £4,790,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | EP/P024769/1 |
| Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2017 |
| End | 06/2021 |
| Title | SDR-EVC |
| Description | We have successfully combined the known techniques of Strong Drive Rotating (SDR) wall and Evaporative Cooling (EVC) to develop a new technique that we have dubbed SDR-EVC. The technique allows tailoring non-neutral plasmas held in Penning traps on all their parameters except their temperature (i.e. you can tailor their number, density and size). The technique is particularly useful in connection with use of positrons, as it allows one to stabilize the number of particles for experiments with positrons, that are often accumulated in a fashion that cause some fluctuation in the number, density and size of what's accumulated. |
| Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | This new tool has assisted in the development of new techniques for trapping antihydrogen that has allowed an order of magnitude increase in the rate at which we can trap antihydrogen. It has also been of great use for allowing us to accumulate antihydrogen a trap and thus reaching much larger numbers than hitherto possible. Finally the stability it engenders has made the experiments on antihydrogen more reliable and reproducible facilitating a number of recent breakthroughs in antihydrogen physics. |
| Description | ALPHA |
| Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
| Department | ALPHA Experiment |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | We have provided 20 years of leadership to antihydrogen research. We have provided expertise in positrons and positron accumulation, trap physics, atomic physics, laser physics, laser-cooling, plasma physics, cryogenics and vacuum technologies. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners have provided funding and manpower and expertise in plasma physics, detector physics, analysis, laser physics, particles physics, atomic physics and physics simulation. |
| Impact | Essentially all my outputs in the last 15 years are due to work with ALPHA. ALPHA is multi-disciplinary by nature, as we have to bring together very diverse fields of physics to do research on antihydrogen. The fields covered are accelerator physics, atomic physics, laser physics, detector physics, particle physics, plasma physics, fundamental physics as well as vacuum technology, detector technology, cryogenics and super-conducting magnet technology to mention the most prominent ones. |
| Description | ALPHA CERN Cryogenics |
| Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
| Department | CERN - Other |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We have developed a cryogenics control system for an 8-magnet superconducting magnetic trap, as well as a control and monitoring system for the magnets. |
| Collaborator Contribution | CERN has provided 16 LHC High Temperature Superconducting leads for the realization of a magnetic antimatter trap, as well as providing cryogenics consultation and design support. |
| Impact | Ongoing |
| Start Year | 2012 |
| Description | ALPHA Collaboration |
| Organisation | European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) |
| Department | ALPHA Experiment |
| Country | Switzerland |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | As co-founders of the collaboration, we have provided funding and expertise in multiple areas of key importance to this experiment : Super conducting magnets, Lasers, Plasma physics, Trap physics, Antiproton physics, Antitrapping, Positrons, Positron accumulation, Cryogenics. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Partners and expertise (in parenthesis) are come from Brazil (Lasers), Canada (Detectors/DAQ), Denmark (Lasers, Antihydrogen), UK (Detectors, Plasma physics plus the above), US (plasma physics, Simulation). The contributations are estimated based on 10 year running of the experiment with 30 academics contributing cash for running and maintenance and about 20 FTE's per year of running plus 3M of contributions of kit. |
| Impact | This is an enormously successful collaboration having resulted in 4 Nature papers and a large volume of other papers as well as heavy representation in the media. It is physics-multidisciplinary in that the collaboration spans several normally separate areas of physics : cryogenics, plasma physics, atomic physics, particle physics, fundamental physics, laser physics, positron physics, and spectroscopy |
| Start Year | 2006 |
| Description | Antimatter at CERN |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Webinar on Antihydrogen in order to engage A-level student locked down due to Covid-19. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IDzU89CB0w |
| Description | CERN Open Days 2019 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Our experiment played a key role in antimatter outreach for the CERN open days in September 2019 that has more than 70'000 visitors. We showed people around at the experiments and discussed the physics applied, the motivations and the outlook. We had many interesting discussions with the general public ranging from age 12 to 80. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://opendays.cern/ |
| Description | CERN Summer Student Program |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | PGR students, postdocs and PIs supervise undegraduate summer research projects at CERN or remotely (during covid). Project work engages students with research taking place at ALPHA and CERN, introduces them to the world of professional physics and high energy research, and generates experience working in an international collaboration. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019,2020,2021 |
| Description | CERN Teachers Programme Antimatter Activity |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | I prepare an execute a small antimatter themed programme with presentation and tour for the CERN teachers programme. I focus on teachers programmes from Wales, England and Denmark. The target teachers are high school teachers (A and AS levels) in physics. The return I get is very enthusiatic and many of the teachers return later with their school classes on a regular basis, thus this is a key way to spread enthusiasm for and knowledge about the science we do. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020 |
| Description | Christmas lecture in Aberystwyth |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a "fun and educational" Christmas lecture of a group of local schools (sixt form / A-levels) at Aberytswyth University. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| Description | High school students researching antimatter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Conducted mini research projects with high school groups at Hopkins School, CT USA. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020,2021 |
| Description | Hosting schools at the Antimatter Factory (both for visits and presentations) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We should around about 30 school classes per year with about 30 students in each in the experiment. Many of them also enjoy an introductory presentation about our experiments. The feedback is always very positive to the likes of "the antimatter visit was the best part", and the teachers report really positively about it. We therefore have a number of Schools who return annually or bi-annually and pre-emptively contact us to exactly get the "antimatter experience". |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| Description | Invited school talk: The Color of Antihydrogen |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Scientific talk with a question and answer session with high school students at the Hopkins School, New Haven, CT |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018 |
| Description | Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition 2016 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We presented the stand "Antimatter Matters" at the Royal Society's Summer Science exhibition in London in 2016. This certainly was an eye-opener for all the very appreciative visitors. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/2016/summer-science-exhibition/ |
| Description | School visits to Antimatter Factory with tours and presentaitons |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | We engage with school classes coming to CERN to visit the Antimatter Factory though presentations and tours of the facilities. This is a good opportunity for them to add some spice to their education and they often ask pertinent questions and express much appreciation for in particular the antimatter part of the programme. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020,2022,2023 |
| URL | http://visit.cern/tours |
| Description | Showcasing Physical Sciences Impact |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Members of our research group presented information about antimatter outreach programs, as well as carrying out a demonstrative version of the kind of outreach activities we use in various settings. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://epsrc.ukri.org/funding/calls/showcasing-physical-sciences-impact-event-2019/ |
| Description | Talk and virtual tour of Antimatter Facility |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Held online (covid-obliged) web-cast on antimatter that included a virtual tour of the ALPHA experiment at CERN> |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8IDzU89CB0w |
| Description | Welsh and UK teachers programmes @ CERN |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | In collaboration with CERN's teachers programmes I deliver presentations and discussions on the subjects of our research (Antimatter) to UK high school teachers. Each year there are currently three teachers programmes (one week each, with about 25 participants) of which one has been focussed on physics teachers in Welsh Schools (A and AS levels). These programmes help enthuse teachers to bring modern and contemporary physics into the class room as well as show them how they can bring their own students to CERN in an effort to highten their interest in STEM subjects. In collaboration with CERN we have received very very positive feedback on this. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016,2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://home.cern/students-educators/teacher-programmes |