Physics
Today: A team working on the Antihydrogen Laser Physics
Apparatus at CERN has succeeded in trapping and holding atoms
of antihydrogen for more than 15 minutesroughly
10 000 times longer than before,
writes
Mark Buchanan for
New Scientist. Because antimatter is annihilated when
it comes in contact with matter, the researchers used a
magnetic trap to isolate the antihydrogen. According to Eugenie
Samuel Reich, who wrote for
Nature about the ALPHA team's
work
last year, an antihydrogen atom comprises a negatively
charged antiproton and a positively charged positron, the
antimatter counterpart of the electron. Because antihydrogen is
made entirely of antiparticles, it is believed to be stable,
unlike atoms made of both particles and antiparticles. The
researchers are counting on
that longevity to
compare the energy levels in antihydrogen with those of
hydrogen to see whether antimatter particles experience the
same electromagnetic forces as matter particles, a key premise
of the standard model.
