CERN’s ALPHA Achieves 100× Improvement in Antimatter Scan

Researchers with the ALPHA experiment at CERN have achieved a hundredfold improvement in the precision of their measurement of antihydrogen, a feat sensitive enough to potentially reveal details about the antiproton’s internal structure. The new result, a measurement with a precision of 4 parts per million, allows for a more precise comparison between hydrogen and its antimatter counterpart. “This result reflects nearly 20 years of Canadian leadership in antihydrogen microwave spectroscopy, a program initiated by Walter Hardy at UBC and Mike Hayden at SFU,” says Makoto Fujiwara, Senior Research Scientist at TRIUMF, and spokesperson for the Canadian team. TRIUMF contributed to the project through the antihydrogen detector data-acquisition system, the cryostat for the antihydrogen trap, and analysis techniques crucial to extracting this precise measurement.

The latest results, led by University of Calgary professor Timothy Friesen and his colleagues, are sensitive enough to potentially reveal subtle differences within the antiproton itself.

HAICU Infrastructure Advances Quantum Antimatter Research

The ALPHA collaboration’s recent precision measurement of antihydrogen’s energy gap is now supported by developing infrastructure aimed at expanding the scope of antimatter research. Specifically, the Hydrogen-Antihydrogen Infrastructure at Canadian Universities, HAICU, is under development at TRIUMF to apply quantum technologies to antimatter science. The ALPHA-Canada team intends to leverage HAICU to push the boundaries of antimatter investigation, seeking to understand fundamental symmetries of the universe with increased accuracy. This sustained investment in technology and expertise demonstrates a long-term commitment to unraveling the mysteries of antimatter.