Testing fundamental physics with antihydrogen at CERN

Fri., Oct. 1, 2021 3:30 p.m. - Fri., Oct. 1, 2021 4:30 p.m.

Location: Zoom

Abstract: Antihydrogen, as the simplest purely antimatter atomic system, is a natural candidate for testing fundamental symmetries between matter and antimatter. For example, CPT (Charge-Parity-Time) symmetry predicts that the spectra of hydrogen and antihydrogen should be identical. By making precise measurements of antihydrogen’s transition frequencies, and making comparisons to high precision measurements in hydrogen, we have an excellent test of CPT symmetry in the atomic sector. In addition, because antihydrogen is electrically neutral it can be used as a probe of the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter. If the weak equivalence principle holds then the gravitational mass of antimatter should be identical to that of matter but so far there have been no direct free-fall style experiments to test this. This talk will discuss the status and progress of the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser PHsyicsApparatus) antihydrogen experiment at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator facility. ALPHA has made major progress in recent years on antihydrogen spectroscopy and has recently constructed a new apparatus for measuring the free-fall of antihydrogen known as ALPHA-g.

Speaker: Dr. Timothy Friesen, University of Calgary