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 probability of detecting the annihilation of released antihydrogen. In this article we describe the first attempts to observe antihydrogen trapping.

G.B. Andresen, W. Bertsche, P.D. Bowe, C.C. Bray, E. Butler, C.L. Cesar, S. Chapman, M. Charlton, J. Fajans, M.C. Fujiwara, R. Funakoshi, D.R. Gill, J.S. Hangst, W.N. Hardy, R.S. Hayano, M.E. Hayden, A.J. Humphries, R. Hydomako, M.J. Jenkins, L.V. Jørgensen, L. Kurchaninov, R. Lambo, N. Madsen, P. Nolan, K. Olchanski, A. Olin, R.D. Page, A. Povilus, P. Pusa, F. Robicheaux, E. Sarid, S. Seif El Nasr, D.M. Silveira, J.W. Storey, R.I. Thompson, D.P. van derWerf, J.S. Wurtele and Y. Yamazaki