Antihydrogen trapping and plasma control - RESUBMISSION 8/5/07
Lead Research Organisation:
Swansea University
Department Name: College of Science
Abstract
Antihydrogen was the first, and so far the only, atom made entirely of antimatter to be produced. In 2002 two teams of scientists independently produced the first cold antimatter atoms at the European centre for nuclear physics, CERN. Antihydrogen is neutral, and is therefore relatively unperturbed by electric and magnetic fields. Measurements on antihydrogen can therefore, in principle, reach the highest level of precision of any man-made measurements via spectroscopic comparison with its normal matter counterpart hydrogen. This comparison is intended to help explain the antimatter/matter asymmetry in the Universe. The current standard model of particle physics, and the underlying quantum theories, imply that there is perfect symmetry between matter and antimatter. This symmetry means that when energy is transformed into matter (following Einstein's famous equation E=mc^2) / exactly equal amounts of matter and antimatter will be formed. However, the Universe of today seems not to contain significant amounts of antimatter, in particular is there no evidence of antimatter stars or planets, nor that the so-called dark-matter should be antimatter. Thus, to put it popularly, we currently miss 50% of the Universe. The research into antimatter, which this project is all about, aims to help resolve this mystery.An important step towards precision comparison of antihydrogen and hydrogen, is to trap the neutral antihydrogen. (Anti)hydrogen can only be trapped in a magnetic trap, which is very shallow, only allowing trapping of atoms with temperatures below about one degree above absolute zero. This means that it is not enough to just make the antihydrogen cold, it has to be very cold. The aim of this project is exactly that; make very cold antihydrogen and trap it. Antihydrogen is normally made by merging plasmas of its constituents: antielectrons (positrons) and antiprotons. In earlier work by the principal investigator and others it was found that up until now, the somewhat brute-force approach used makes antihydrogen which is significantly warmer than the surroundings. So, even with cryogenic surroundings at four degrees above absolute zero, very few trappable antiatoms would be produced. In this project a range of plasma physics techniques will be implemented. These techniques offer detailed control over the shape and density of the plasmas, as well as diagnostics for these parameters. Although the techniques have been applied elsewhere, the challenge here is to make them into work horses in the complex experimental setup that is used for antihydrogen formation. Furthermore, the techniques have not been applied to the extent proposed here in multi-species plasmas. Using these techniques, it is expected that detailed control of the antihydrogen internal states and their temperature can be obtained. These two parameters are both crucial for the success of magnetic trapping, and the future goal of antihydrogen spectroscopy.
Publications
Fajans J
(2008)
Critical loss radius in a Penning trap subject to multipole fields
in Physics of Plasmas
Friesen T
(2012)
Microwave-plasma interactions studied via mode diagnostics in ALPHA
in Hyperfine Interactions
Hydomako R
(2011)
Antihydrogen detection in ALPHA
in Hyperfine Interactions
Madsen N
(2010)
Cold antihydrogen: a new frontier in fundamental physics.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Madsen N
(2014)
From Physics to Daily Life
Madsen N
(2013)
Trapped antihydrogen: A new frontier in fundamental physics
in Journal of Physics: Conference Series
Madsen N
(2018)
Antiproton physics in the ELENA era.
in Philosophical transactions. Series A, Mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences
Description | Though the implementation of a number of novel techniques for control of non-neutral antimatter plasmas, such as compression of antiproton plasmas, evaporative cooling of antiprotons to cryogenic temperatures and autoresonant excitation of antiprotons the project succeeded in the first trapping of anti-atoms. The anti-hydrogen atoms could be help suspended by magnetic fields in a vacuum for up to 15 minutes. This world-leading result is paving the way for the first detailed comparisons of antihydrogen and hydrogen. |
Exploitation Route | detailed control of non-neutral plasmas is useful for anybody working with Penning traps. - the techniques are already in use, or planned for use by a number of competing experiments. - the techniques are in use in slow positron accummulators. - slow positrons are used for materials studies. |
Sectors | Other |
URL | http://alpha.web.cern.ch/ |
Description | The have been used to facilitate the first trapping of antihydrogen, and to observe the first quantum transitions in an antimatter atom. Apart from the momentous physics achievement this is, it has had enormous potential to attract students to STEM subjects. |
First Year Of Impact | 2010 |
Sector | Education,Other |
Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
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 | The book is used as reference material at the winter schools on "Physics with Trapped Charged Particles", the next of which will be hosted in january 2018 (the previous one was in 2015). These schools reach primarily European level post-graduates (Ph.D. students and young researchers), with a few intercontinental participants (US / Asia / Brazil). We have received good feedback on this. No further quantitative feedback available at this time. |
Description | EPSRC Standard Grant (Responsive Mode) |
Amount | £3,824,192 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/P024734/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 03/2017 |
End | 03/2021 |
Description | International Exchanges Scheme |
Amount | £12,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 11/2011 |
End | 10/2013 |
Description | Leverhulme Trust Senior Research Fellowship |
Amount | £41,728 (GBP) |
Funding ID | LT090041 |
Organisation | The Royal Society |
Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 08/2010 |
End | 08/2011 |
Description | Physics with Trapped Antihydrogen |
Amount | £2,596,600 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/L014734/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2014 |
End | 01/2017 |
Description | The Spectroscopy of Antihydrogen |
Amount | £2,307,765 (GBP) |
Funding ID | EP/H026932/1 |
Organisation | Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 02/2010 |
End | 02/2014 |
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 Lectures & Tours at CERN |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | I give antimatter related lectures on a regular basis for school groups from Wales, UK, Denmark and Finland. Typically I entertain a about 300 pupils per year this way. The lectures are followed by guided visits to the experiments, in particular the ALPHA experiment where UK is a lead contributor. I have many repeat visits (same teacher, new students) - and both teachers and students give very enthusiastic feedback from these visits. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014,2015,2016,2017 |
Description | Antimatter Matters exhibition at the Gravity Fields Festival in Grantham |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | The Antimatter Matters Royal Society Exhibition was moved to the thirds gravity fields festival and participated in the activities in the Guildhall. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://www.gravityfields.co.uk/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=17942&p=0 |
Description | Lecture at E2PHI for French Highschool teachers |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | I was invited to present our activites at a summer school for french high school teachers. About 200 teachers from all of France participate in this week-long school and I had incredibly positive feedback from them. Since the school 3 of the teachers have brought their classes to CERN specifically asking for a tour and introductory talk by myself. As mentioned above. This has caused an additional number of visits to our lab. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
URL | http://e2phy.in2p3.fr/2013/ |
Description | Lectures at Aabenraa Gymnasium (Denmark) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Local |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | My presentation sparked many questions and was very well received. I expect several students to go further towards studying physics at university as a result of my presentation. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2013 |
Description | Lectures at Lycée des Glières in Annemasse (France) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Schools |
Results and Impact | My presentations sparked a lot of interest with the students and I had several stimulating discussion with the most interested students after the talk. Nothing specific. But I expect that the interest in physics has been heightened by my presentations. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2014 |
Description | Manchester Science Festival |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | As part of the Manchester Science Festival the royal society invited us to present our Antimatter Matters exhibit. This was a great opportunity to reach further audiences with this activity that we had already tuned for schools and the general public. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/science-exhibition-manchester/exhibits/ |
Description | Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition : Antimatter Matters |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | National |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | In collaboration with about 10 other UK institutions members of the LHCb collaboration at CERN the UK ALPHA members (Swansea, Liverpool and Manchester) organised (Responsible organisers Prof. N. Madsen (Swansea), C. Lazzaroni (Birmingham), T. Shears (Liverpool) and C. Parkes (Manchester)) a stand/exhibit at the annual Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition. This is a competition based invitees-only exhibition (i.e. you compete to get invited to exhibit) and it's very professional (in both presentation and organisation). A great number of schools visit the exhibit and also many members of the general public. A number of special events were also hosted,with MEP's as wells FRS. The RS and well as ourselves collected feedback from participants who greatly appreciated and reported increased interest in science thanks to our exhibit. We continue to tour the exhibit at various UK science events - so more events will be reported here. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
URL | https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and-lectures/summer-science-exhibition/exhibits/antimatter-m... |
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 | 2017 |
URL | https://home.cern/students-educators/teacher-programmes |
Description | Winter School on Physics with Trapped Charged Particles |
Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Geographic Reach | International |
Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
Results and Impact | In collaboration with Profs. Richard Thompson and Martina Knoop of Imperial College London and Aix-Marseille Universities respectively I have organised and chaired a winter school on physics with trapped charge particles in January 2012 and January 2015. Each school is 10 days long with presentations and workshops by internationally recognized leaders in the field give to about 55 participants who are mainly Ph.D. students and some PDRAs. The school has been a great success each time and we will repeat it in January 2018. So far only limited external support has been received for this but we're organising it that L'ecole de Physique des Houches, which is a sort of charitable organisation for physics events. |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2012,2015 |
URL | http://indico.cern.ch/event/315947/ |