How ALPHA works

Our experiments

This video shows a complete experimental cycle where we expose antihydrogen atoms to laser radiation.

 

Components of ALPHA

This section descibes how the most important components of ALPHA work. These are: the Penning trap, which holds the positrons and antiprotons before we use them to make antihydrogen, the atom trap, which traps and holds the antihydrogen atoms, and the annihilation vertex imaging detector, which detects the antihydrogen atoms when we allow them to annihilate and can find the point at which they annihilated.

(Note: this section is still incomplete, we'll be adding more here)

 

The magnetic trap

 

Penning trap

 

Positrons

 

Annihilation Detector

More Reading

Good descriptions of how ALPHA works con be found in the publications section.

Particularly appropriate for students and non-physicists are Cold antihydrogen: a new frontier in fundamental physics, Antihydrogen for precision tests in physics and Antihydrogen in a bottle.

For experts, a general overview of many of the important aspects can be found in Search for Trapped Antihydrogen.

Live Media about ALPHA

Check out this list of clips describing various aspects of ALPHA as well as news reels of ALPHA : Antimatter Clips

If you're looking for something on the go there's also this podcast about antimatter.

Si vous préférez écouter en français, il y a aussi cette emission sur France Culture sur l'antimatière.