On Tuesday, CERN scientists achieved a groundbreaking milestone by transporting antiprotons via road, successfully testing the world’s first antimatter delivery system, with the goal of eventually supplying research labs across Europe.
“The particles came back safely… so it was a success,” CERN physicist Stefan Ulmer said after the large truck completed a 10-kilometre loop around the European physics lab’s campus.
A Short Journey Marks the Start of a New Era in Antimatter Research
Though the distance was short, Ulmer, a spokesperson for CERN’s BASE experiment studying the imbalance between matter and antimatter in the universe, described it as the “beginning of a new era.”
Ordinary matter and its enigmatic counterpart, antimatter, are thought to be nearly identical, differing only in their electrical charge and magnetic properties.
Scientists continue to puzzle over why the universe has far more matter than antimatter, even though the Big Bang should have produced them in equal amounts.
When matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate each other, vanishing in a burst of high-energy particles.
This makes transporting antimatter extremely difficult—a challenge that now appears to have been successfully tackled.
“This is amazing!” said Francois Butin, technical coordinator of CERN’s so-called antimatter factory—the sole facility worldwide capable of producing, storing, and studying antiprotons.
“It creates a whole host of new opportunities,” he told AFP.
The particle accelerator and decelerator at the antimatter factory create fluctuations that interfere with measurements, limiting their accuracy.
Scientists devised a way to trap antiprotons for transfer to quieter facilities, allowing far more precise experiments.
Pursuing Fundamental Symmetries with Unprecedented Precision
Ulmer explained that outside the accelerator, measurements could be 100 to 1,000 times more precise.
For the first-ever antimatter transport, scientists captured and stored 92 antiprotons in a portable cryogenic Penning trap.
Scientists cooled them to 8.2 K (−268°C) and maintained a vacuum to avoid collisions and annihilation.
Dozens of CERN scientists watched tensely as a yellow overhead crane lifted and moved the 850-kg trap across the lab.
Although they had rehearsed the delicate operation, the team achieved the milestone by loading the huge container onto a flatbed truck and driving it for the first time.
Marcus Jankowski of CERN said the road stage is most critical due to added vibrations.
The “Antimatter in Motion” truck, escorted by flashing vehicles, slowly crossed the CERN campus.
Tracking Antimatter in Real Time During Transport
Ulmer followed the truck in his car, constantly monitoring the antimatter’s “vital signs” on his phone. The antiprotons’ characteristic vibration frequency appeared as an M-shaped pattern with two peaks.
He said the peak heights show the number of antiprotons, with a single peak indicating annihilation.
During transport, the pattern fluctuated slightly, but Ulmer said the detector’s frequency had only shifted a few hertz.
“The particles remained in place,” he said enthusiastically after the journey.
Expanding Antimatter Research Across Europe
CERN plans to transport antiprotons across Europe, starting with its Düsseldorf facility, eight hours away.
“That would require keeping the trap’s magnet below 8.2 K the whole time,” said Christian Smorra of the BASE-STEP experiment.
He said the main challenge is transferring the antiprotons at their destination without losing them.
Read the original article on:sciencealert
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