E. Butler
In 2015 the first observation of gravitational waves marked a breakthrough in astrophysics, and in technological research and development. The discovery of a gravitational-wave signal from the collision of two black holes, a billion…
The ALPHA collaboration has successfully demonstrated the production and the confinement of cold antihydrogen, $\overline{\mathrm{H}}$. An analysis of trapping data allowed a stringent limit to be placed on the electric charge of the…
We have measured the damped motion of a trapped Bose-Einstein condensate, oscillating with respect to a thermal cloud. The cigar-shaped trapping potential provides enough transverse confinement that the dynamics of the system are…
We report results from a novel diagnostic that probes the outer radial profile of trapped antiproton clouds. The diagnostic allows us to determine the profile by monitoring the time-history of antiproton losses that occur as an octupole…
Recently, antihydrogen atoms were trapped at CERN in a magnetic minimum (minimum-B) trap formed by superconducting octupole and mirror magnet coils. The trapped antiatoms were detected by rapidly turning off these magnets, thereby…
We demonstrate a novel detection method for the cyclotron resonance frequency of an electron plasma in a Penning-Malmberg trap. With this technique, the electron plasma is used as an in situ diagnostic tool for measurement of the static…
Atoms made of a particle and an antiparticle are unstable, usually surviving less than a microsecond. Antihydrogen, made entirely of antiparticles, is believed to be stable, and it is this longevity that holds the promise of precision…
Charges in cold, multiple-species, non-neutral plasmas separate radially by mass, forming centrifugally-separated states. Here, we report the first detailed measurements of such states in an electron-antiproton plasma, and the first…
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…
We report the application of evaporative cooling to clouds of trapped antiprotons, resulting in plasmas with measured temperature as low as 9~K. We have modeled the evaporation process for charged particles using appropriate rate equations.…
Antihydrogen production in a neutral atom trap formed by an octupole-based magnetic field minimum is demonstrated using field-ionization of weakly bound anti-atoms. Using our unique annihilation imaging detector, we correlate antihydrogen…
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…
Control of the radial profile of trapped antiproton clouds is critical to trapping antihydrogen. We report the first detailed measurements of the radial manipulation of antiproton clouds, including areal density compressions by factors as…