The PS210 experiment was the first experiment that led to the observation of
antihydrogen atoms produced at 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) at
CERN in 1995.
The antihydrogen atoms were produced in flight and moved at nearly the speed of light. They made unique electrical signals in detectors that destroyed them almost immediately after they formed by matter–
antimatter
In modern physics, antimatter is defined as matter composed of the antiparticles (or "partners") of the corresponding particles in "ordinary" matter. Antimatter occurs in natural processes like cosmic ray collisions and some types of radioac ...
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 ...
.
Eleven signals were observed, of which two were attributed to other processes.
In 1997 similar observations were announced at
Fermilab
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), located just outside Batavia, Illinois, near Chicago, is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory specializing in high-energy particle physics. Since 2007, Fermilab has been opera ...
from the
E862 experiment.
The first measurement demonstrated the existence of antihydrogen,
the second (with improved setup and intensity monitoring) measured the production rate.
Both experiments, one at each of the only two facilities with suitable
antiprotons
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 ...
, were stimulated by calculations which suggested the possibility of making very fast
antihydrogen within existing circular
accelerators.
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
Particle experiments
CERN experiments
External Links
PS210 experimentrecord on
INSPIRE-HEP
{{particle-stub