The first construction meeting for the Extra-Low ENergy Antiproton (ELENA) Ring kicks off at CERN today. ELENA, approved by the CERN research board last July, is an additional ring in the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) building, designed to slow the 3.5 MeV beam from the AD to 100keV before delivering the beam to the experiments. What this means for experiments like ALPHA is that we can use much thinner matter foils to slow the antiproton beam down before capturing them in the trap, which in turn can mean a hundredfold increase in capture efficiency.

The meeting involves presentations from the experiments on past achievements, and future goals, from the CERN departments on the technical challenges and plans to meet them, and from external institues, committing financial and technical add to the project.

Read more at the CERN press release.