Trapped Antihydrogen

published by Nature Publishing Group
Nov 19, 2010

Antihydrogen (a positron orbiting an antiproton) has been produced at CERN since 2002.  However, this is the first time that antihydrogen is trapped, preventing it from annihilation, for a fraction of a second (170 milliseconds.)

Nature Magazine reports that researchers at CERN working with the ATLAS apparatus measured 38 annihilation events consistent with the controlled release of trapped antihydrogen from a magnetic trap.

Trapped antihydrogen would allow an important test of the Standard Model.  According to the charge conjugation/parity/time reversal (CPT) theorem, atoms have the same spectra as their corresponding "anti-atoms."  Antihydrogen should have precisely the same spectrum as hydrogen.

Here is a direct link to the CERN press release: http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2010/PR22.10E.html

http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101117/full/468355a.html