Conference Proceedings (unrefereed)

  • The ALPHA detector: Module Production and Assembly

    ALPHA is one of the experiments situated at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator (AD). A Silicon Vertex Detector (SVD) is placed to surround the ALPHA atom trap. The main purpose of the SVD is to detect and locate antiproton annihilation events by means of the emitted charged pions. The SVD system is presented with special focus given…

  • ALPHA Antihydrogen Experiment

    ALPHA is an experiment at CERN, whose ultimate goal is to perform a precise test of CPT symmetry with trapped antihydrogen atoms. After reviewing the motivations, we discuss our recent progress toward the initial goal of stable trapping of antihydrogen, with some emphasis on particle detection techniques. Go directly to

  • Antiproton compression and radial measurements

    Control of the radial profile of trapped antiproton clouds is critical to trapping antihydrogen. We report detailed measurements of the radial manipulation of antiproton clouds, including areal density compressions by factors as large as ten, achieved by manipulating spatially overlapped electron plasmas. We show detailed measurements of the near-axis antiproton radial profile, and its relation…

  • Particle Physics Aspects of Antihydrogen Studies with ALPHA at CERN

    We discuss aspects of antihydrogen studies, that relate to particle physics ideas and techniques, within the context of the ALPHA experiment at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator facility. We review the fundamental physics motivations for antihydrogen studies, and their potential physics reach. We argue that initial spectroscopy measurements, once antihydrogen is trapped, could provide competitive tests of…

  • First Attempts at Antihydrogen Trapping in ALPHA

    The ALPHA apparatus is designed to produce and trap antihydrogen atoms. The device comprises a multifunction Penning trap and a superconducting, neutral atom trap having a minimum-B configuration. The atom trap features an octupole magnet for transverse confinement and solenoidal mirror coils for longitudinal confinement. The magnetic trap employs a fast shutdown system to maximize…

  • The ALPHA Antihydrogen Experiment

    ALPHA is a new experiment at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator (AD). The short term goal of ALPHA is trapping of cold antihydrogen, with the long term goal of conducting precise spectroscopic comparisons of hydrogen and antihydrogen. Here we present the current status of ALPHA and the physics considerations and results leading to its design as…

  • Simple loss scaling laws for quadrupoles and higher-order multipoles used in antihydrogen traps

    Simple scaling laws strongly suggest that for antihydrogen relevant parameters, quadrupole magnetic fields will transport particles into, or near to, the trap walls. Consequently quadrupoles are a poor choice for antihydrogen trapping. Higher order multipoles lead to much less transport. Go directly to

  • Antihydrogen from merged plasmas – cold enough to trap?

    The merging of antiprotons with a positron plasma is the predominant and highest efficient method for cold antihydrogen formation used to date [1, 2, 3]. We present experimental evidence that this method has serious disadvantages for producing antihydrogen cold enough to be trapped [4, 5]. Antihydrogen is neutral but may be trapped in a magnetic…

  • The ALPHA Experiment: A Cold Antihydrogen Trap

    The ALPHA experiment aims to trap antihydrogen as the next crucial step towards a precise CPT test, by a spectroscopic comparison of antihydrogen with hydrogen. The experiment will retain the salient techniques developed by the ATHENA collaboration during the previous phase of antihydrogen experiments at the antiproton decelerator (AD) at CERN. The collaboration has identified…