CERN Accelerating science

This thesis describes the latest results of the on-going efforts to measure the properties of antihydrogen within the ALPHA collaboration. More specifically, it covers the construction and commissioning of the ALPHA-g experiment [1], and the plans to measure how antimatter behaves in Earth’s gravitational field. A special emphasis is on the ALPHA-g magnet system used to confine and manipulate the antihydrogen atoms. Tests of methods for calculating magnetic fields relevant for simulations [2] are covered as well.

This paper examines different models for calculating the magnetic field of solenoids. Accuracy and computation time are compared for a range of different simplified models: a current loop and a thin shell solenoid, and solenoids with finite length and thickness. There is no definitive answer to “what model is the best”, as it depends on the specific use case, but there are certain models that excel in speed or accuracy, and there are models that have very limited use.