Experiment details

A new paper describes experiments conducted at CERN. It turns out that antihydrogen atoms (a positron orbiting an antiproton) appear. They fall to Earth in the same way as their material counterparts.

This was the first direct experiment in which the effect of gravity on the motion of antimatter was actually observed. This is an important milestone in the study of antimatter, which still confuses the scientific world due to its absence in the universe.

Antihydrogen atoms are electrically neutral and stable antimatter particles. These properties make them ideal systems for studying the gravitational behavior of antimatter. Gravity is the force of attraction between two objects that have mass. It is the weakest of the four fundamental forces of nature.

Antihydrogen atoms are created by taking negatively charged antiprotons and combining them with positively charged positrons deposited from a sodium-22 source. The neutral but slightly magnetic antimatter atoms are then caught in a magnetic trap that prevents them from coming into contact with matter and annihilating. The team built an upright apparatus that allowed them to measure how antihydrogen atoms annihilate with matter when the trap’s magnetic field is turned off, allowing the atoms to begin moving in one direction or another.

The scientists trapped groups of about 100 antihydrogen atoms, then slowly released the atoms from the trap over 20 seconds, gradually reducing the current in the top and bottom magnets.

Now scientists want to compare the rates of decline.