The Antiproton Decelerator (AD) is a

storage ring A storage ring is a type of circular particle accelerator in which a continuous or pulsed particle beam may be kept circulating, typically for many hours. Storage of a particular particle depends upon the mass, momentum, and usually the charge o ...

at the

CERN The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in Meyrin, western suburb of Gene ...

laboratory near

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

. It was built from the Antiproton Collector (AC) to be a successor to the

Low Energy Antiproton Ring The Low Energy Anti-Proton Ring (LEAR) was a particle accelerator at CERN which operated from 1982 until 1996. The ring was designed to decelerate and store antiprotons, to study the properties of antimatter and to create atoms of antihydrogen. ...

(LEAR) and started operation in the year 2000.

Antiproton The antiproton, , (pronounced ''p-bar'') is the antiparticle of the proton. Antiprotons are stable, but they are typically short-lived, since any collision with a proton will cause both particles to be annihilated in a burst of energy. The exis ...

s are created by impinging a proton beam from the

Proton Synchrotron The Proton Synchrotron (PS, sometimes also referred to as CPS) is a particle accelerator at CERN. It is CERN's first synchrotron, beginning its operation in 1959. For a brief period the PS was the world's highest energy particle accelerator. It ...

on an

iridium Iridium is a chemical element; it has the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. This very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density ...

target. The AD decelerates the resultant antiprotons to an energy of 5.3 MeV, which are then ejected to one of several connected experiments. The major goals of experiments at AD are to spectroscopically observe the

antihydrogen Antihydrogen () is the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen. Whereas the common hydrogen atom is composed of an electron and proton, the antihydrogen atom is made up of a positron and antiproton. Scientists hope that studying antihydrogen may sh ...

and to study the effects of

gravity In physics, gravity (), also known as gravitation or a gravitational interaction, is a fundamental interaction, a mutual attraction between all massive particles. On Earth, gravity takes a slightly different meaning: the observed force b ...

on antimatter. Though each experiment at AD has varied aims ranging from testing antimatter for cancer therapy to

CPT symmetry Charge, parity, and time reversal symmetry is a fundamental symmetry of physical laws under the simultaneous transformations of charge conjugation (C), parity transformation (P), and time reversal (T). CPT is the only combination of C, P, and ...

and antigravity research.

History

From 1982 to 1996, CERN operated the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR), through which several experiments with slow-moving antiprotons were carried out. During the end stages of LEAR, the physics community involved in those

antimatter In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding subatomic particle, particles in "ordinary" matter, and can be thought of as matter with reversed charge and parity, or go ...

experiments wanted to continue their studies with the slow antiprotons. The motivation to build the AD grew out of the

Antihydrogen Antihydrogen () is the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen. Whereas the common hydrogen atom is composed of an electron and proton, the antihydrogen atom is made up of a positron and antiproton. Scientists hope that studying antihydrogen may sh ...

Workshop held in

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

in 1992. This idea was carried forward quickly and AD's feasibility study was completed by 1995. In 1996, the CERN Council asked the

(PS) division to look into the possibility of generating slow antiproton beams. The PS division prepared a design study in 1996 with the solution to use the antiproton collector (AC), and transform it into a single Antiproton Decelerator Machine. The AD was approved in February 1997. AC modification, AD installation, and commissioning process were carried out in the next three years. By the end of 1999, the AC ring was modified into a decelerator and cooling system- forming the Antiproton Decelerator.

Decelerator

AD's oval-shaped perimeter has four straight sections where the deceleration and cooling systems are placed. There are several

dipole In physics, a dipole () is an electromagnetic phenomenon which occurs in two ways: * An electric dipole moment, electric dipole deals with the separation of the positive and negative electric charges found in any electromagnetic system. A simple ...

and

quadrupole A quadrupole or quadrapole is one of a sequence of configurations of things like electric charge or current, or gravitational mass that can exist in ideal form, but it is usually just part of a multipole expansion of a more complex structure re ...

magnets in these sections to avoid beam dispersion. Antiprotons are cooled and decelerated in a single 100-second cycle in the AD synchrotron.

Production of antiprotons

AD requires about

\mathrm

protons of momentum 26 GeV/c to produce

\mathrm

antiprotons per minute. The high-energy protons coming from the proton synchrotron are made to collide with a thin, highly dense rod of

metal of 3-mm diameter and 55 cm in length. The iridium rod embedded in

graphite Graphite () is a Crystallinity, crystalline allotrope (form) of the element carbon. It consists of many stacked Layered materials, layers of graphene, typically in excess of hundreds of layers. Graphite occurs naturally and is the most stable ...

and enclosed by a sealed water-cooled

titanium Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...

case remains intact. But the collisions create a lot of energetic particles, including the antiprotons. A magnetic bi-conical aluminum horn-type lens collects the antiprotons emerging from the target. This collector takes in the antiprotons, and they are separated from other particles using deflection through electromagnetic forces.

Deceleration, accumulation and cooling down

Radio frequency Radio frequency (RF) is the oscillation rate of an alternating electric current or voltage or of a magnetic, electric or electromagnetic field or mechanical system in the frequency range from around to around . This is roughly between the u ...

(RF) systems decelerate and bunch the cooled antiprotons at 3.5 GeV/c. Numerous magnets inside focus the randomly moving antiprotons into a

collimated A collimated beam of light or other electromagnetic radiation has parallel rays, and therefore will spread minimally as it propagates. A laser beam is an archetypical example. A perfectly collimated light beam, with no divergence, would not disp ...

beam and bend the beam. Simultaneously the

electric field An electric field (sometimes called E-field) is a field (physics), physical field that surrounds electrically charged particles such as electrons. In classical electromagnetism, the electric field of a single charge (or group of charges) descri ...

s further decelerate them. Stochastic cooling and electron cooling stages designed inside the AD decrease the energy of beams as well as limit the antiproton beam from any significant distortions. Stochastic cooling is applied for antiprotons at 3.5 GeV/c and then at 2 GeV/c, followed by electron cooling at 0.3 GeV/c and at 0.1 GeV/c. The final output beam has a momentum of 0.1 GeV/c (

kinetic energy In physics, the kinetic energy of an object is the form of energy that it possesses due to its motion. In classical mechanics, the kinetic energy of a non-rotating object of mass ''m'' traveling at a speed ''v'' is \fracmv^2.Resnick, Rober ...

equal to 5.3 MeV). These antiprotons move with the speed of about one-tenth that of light. But the experiments need much lower energy beams (3 to 5 KeV). So the antiprotons are again decelerated to ~5 KeV, using the degrader foils. This step accounts for the loss of 99.9% of antiprotons. The collected antiprotons are then temporarily stored in the

Penning trap A Penning trap is a device for the storage of charged particles using a homogeneous magnetic field and a quadrupole electric field. It is mostly found in the physical sciences and related fields of study for precision measurements of properties o ...

s; before being fed into the several AD experiments. The Penning traps can also form

by combining antiprotons with the

positron The positron or antielectron is the particle with an electric charge of +1''elementary charge, e'', a Spin (physics), spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same Electron rest mass, mass as an electron. It is the antiparticle (antimatt ...

ELENA

ELENA (Extra Low ENergy Antiproton) is a 30 m hexagonal storage ring situated inside the AD complex. It is designed to further decelerate the antiproton beam to an energy of 0.1 MeV for more precise measurements. The first beam circulated ELENA on 18 November 2016. GBAR was the first experiment to use a beam from ELENA, with the rest of the AD experiments to follow suit after LS2 when beam transfer lines from ELENA will have been laid to all the experiments using the facility.

AD experiments

ATHENA

ATHENA, AD-1 experiment, was an

research project that took place at the Antiproton Decelerator. In August 2002, it was the first experiment to produce 50,000 low-energy

atoms, as reported in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

''. In 2005, ATHENA was disbanded and many of the former members worked on the subsequent ALPHA experiment.

ATRAP

The Antihydrogen Trap (ATRAP) collaboration, responsible for the AD-2 experiment, is a continuation of the TRAP collaboration, which started taking data for the PS196 experiment in 1985. The TRAP experiment (PS196) pioneered cold

antiproton The antiproton, , (pronounced ''p-bar'') is the antiparticle of the proton. Antiprotons are stable, but they are typically short-lived, since any collision with a proton will cause both particles to be annihilated in a burst of energy. The exis ...

s, cold

s, and first made the ingredients of cold

to interact. Later ATRAP members pioneered accurate

hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...

spectroscopy Spectroscopy is the field of study that measures and interprets electromagnetic spectra. In narrower contexts, spectroscopy is the precise study of color as generalized from visible light to all bands of the electromagnetic spectrum. Spectro ...

and observed the first hot antihydrogen atoms.

ASACUSA

Atomic Spectroscopy and Collisions Using Slow Antiprotons (ASACUSA), AD-3, is an experiment testing for CPT-symmetry by laser spectroscopy of

antiprotonic helium Antiprotonic helium is a three-body atom composed of an antiproton and an electron orbiting around a helium nucleus. It is thus made partly of matter, and partly of antimatter. The atom is electrically neutral, since an electron and an antiprot ...

and microwave spectroscopy of the

hyperfine structure In atomic physics, hyperfine structure is defined by small shifts in otherwise degenerate electronic energy levels and the resulting splittings in those electronic energy levels of atoms, molecules, and ions, due to electromagnetic multipole int ...

. It compares matter and antimatter using

and antiprotonic helium and looks into matter-antimatter collisions. It also measures atomic and nuclear cross-sections of antiprotons on various targets at extremely low energies.

ACE

The Antiproton Cell Experiment (ACE), AD-4, started in 2003. It aims to assess fully the effectiveness and suitability of antiprotons for

cancer therapy Cancer treatments are a wide range of treatments available for the many different types of cancer, with each cancer type needing its own specific treatment. Treatments can include surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormonal therapy, targe ...

. The results showed that antiprotons required to break down the

tumor cells A neoplasm () is a type of abnormal and excessive growth of tissue. The process that occurs to form or produce a neoplasm is called neoplasia. The growth of a neoplasm is uncoordinated with that of the normal surrounding tissue, and persists ...

were four times less than the number of protons required. The effect on healthy tissues due to antiprotons was significantly less. Although the experiment ended in 2013, further research and validation still continue, owing to the long procedures of bringing in novel medical treatments.

ALPHA

The Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus (ALPHA), the AD-5 experiment, is designed to trap neutral

in a magnetic trap, and conduct experiments on them. The ultimate goal of this endeavour is to test

through comparison of the atomic spectra of

and antihydrogen (see

hydrogen spectral series The emission spectrum of atomic hydrogen has been divided into a number of ''spectral series'', with wavelengths given by the Rydberg formula. These observed spectral lines are due to the electron making transitions between two energy levels i ...

). The ALPHA collaboration consists of some former members of the ATHENA collaboration (the first group to produce cold antihydrogen, in 2002), as well as a number of new members.

AEgIS

AEgIS, Antimatter Experiment: gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy, AD-6, is an experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator. AEgIS would attempt to determine if

affects

in the same way it affects normal

matter In classical physics and general chemistry, matter is any substance that has mass and takes up space by having volume. All everyday objects that can be touched are ultimately composed of atoms, which are made up of interacting subatomic pa ...

by testing its effect on an

beam. The first phase of the experiment created antihydrogen using the charge exchange reaction between antiprotons from the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) and

positronium Positronium (Ps) is a system consisting of an electron and its antimatter, anti-particle, a positron, bound together into an exotic atom, specifically an onium. Unlike hydrogen, the system has no protons. The system is unstable: the two part ...

, producing a pulse of antihydrogen atoms. These atoms are sent through a series of

diffraction grating In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical grating with a periodic structure that diffraction, diffracts light, or another type of electromagnetic radiation, into several beams traveling in different directions (i.e., different diffractio ...

s, ultimately hitting a surface and thus annihilating. The points where the antihydrogen annihilates are measured with a precise detector. Areas behind the gratings are shadowed, while those behind the slits are not. The annihilation points reproduce a periodic pattern of light and shadowed areas. Using this pattern, it can be measured how many atoms of different velocities are vertically displaced due to gravity during n their horizontal flight. Therefore, the Earth's gravitational force on antihydrogen can be determined.

GBAR

GBAR (Gravitational Behaviour of Anti hydrogen at Rest), AD-7 experiment, is a multinational collaboration at the Antiproton Decelerator of CERN. The GBAR project aims to measure the free-fall acceleration of ultra-cold neutral anti-hydrogen

atoms Atoms are the basic particles of the chemical elements. An atom consists of a nucleus of protons and generally neutrons, surrounded by an electromagnetically bound swarm of electrons. The chemical elements are distinguished from each other ...

in the terrestrial

gravitational field In physics, a gravitational field or gravitational acceleration field is a vector field used to explain the influences that a body extends into the space around itself. A gravitational field is used to explain gravitational phenomena, such as ...

. By measuring the free fall acceleration of anti-hydrogen and comparing it with acceleration of normal hydrogen, GBAR is testing the

equivalence principle The equivalence principle is the hypothesis that the observed equivalence of gravitational and inertial mass is a consequence of nature. The weak form, known for centuries, relates to masses of any composition in free fall taking the same t ...

proposed by

Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...

. The equivalence principle says that the gravitational force on a particle is independent of its internal structure and composition.

BASE

BASE (Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment), AD-8, is a multinational collaboration at the Antiproton Decelerator of CERN. The goal of the Japanese/German BASE collaboration are high-precision investigations of the fundamental properties of the antiproton, namely the charge-to-mass ratio and the

magnetic moment In electromagnetism, the magnetic moment or magnetic dipole moment is the combination of strength and orientation of a magnet or other object or system that exerts a magnetic field. The magnetic dipole moment of an object determines the magnitude ...

. The single antiprotons are stored in an advanced

system, which has a double-trap system at its core, for high precision frequency measurements and for single particle spin flip

. By measuring the spin flip rate as a function of the frequency of an externally applied magnetic-drive, a resonance curve is obtained. Together with a measurement of the cyclotron frequency, the magnetic moment is extracted.

PUMA

The PUMA (antiProton Unstable Matter Annihilation experiment), AD-9, aims to look into the quantum interactions and

annihilation In particle physics, annihilation is the process that occurs when a subatomic particle collides with its respective antiparticle to produce other particles, such as an electron colliding with a positron to produce two photons. The total energy a ...

processes between the antiprotons and the exotic slow-moving nuclei. PUMA's experimental goals require about one billion trapped antiprotons made by AD and ELENA to be transported to the ISOLDE-nuclear physics facility at CERN, which will supply the exotic nuclei. Antimatter has never been transported out of the AD facility before. Designing and building a trap for this transportation is the most challenging aspect for the PUMA collaboration.

References

INSPIRE-HEP INSPIRE-HEP is an open access digital library for the field of high energy physics (HEP). It is the successor of the Stanford Physics Information Retrieval System (SPIRES) database, the main literature database for high energy physics since the 1 ...