Protons go on a trip, in a truck
Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have for the first time successfully transported protons outside an antimatter lab and across the facility’s Meyrin campus over a period of 4 hours. This is a key step towards the goal of moving antiprotons to other high-precision labs across Europe, a necessary action to enable extremely precise measurements of matter-antimatter differences, which are only possible far from accelerator facilities. “We need an extremely high level of measuring accuracy to be able to identify possible differences in the magnetic moment or charge-to-mass ratio. It is virtually impossible to achieve this close to CERN’s accelerators, though, as the magnetic disturbance that the accelerators there generate is simply too high,” explains Heinrich Heine Universität Düsseldorf (HHU) professor Stefan Ulmer in a news item(opens in new window) posted on the university’s website. For this reason, he and his team want to transport antiprotons produced at CERN to Düsseldorf to measure them there in a new, extremely well shielded laboratory.
But first, protons
In their study(opens in new window) supported by the EU-funded STEP(opens in new window) project, the researchers describe how they successfully transported a cloud of approximately 100 trapped protons out of CERN’s Antimatter Factory (AMF) using a transportable, superconducting, autonomous and open Penning-trap system called BASE-STEP. The system makes it possible for antiprotons to be injected and ejected from the trap, and therefore distributed to other experiments. For the first time ever, and focusing on protons rather than antiprotons, the team transferred trapped protons from their experimental area at the AMF onto a truck, and then transported them across CERN’s Meyrin campus. Study lead author Marcel Leonhardt, also from HHU, which is coordinating the STEP project, explains in the news item: “We were able to demonstrate the loss-free relocation of protons, sustain autonomous operation without external power for four hours and continue to operate the trap loss-free afterwards. An important step that shows that particles can thus be relocated over longer distances in normal road traffic.” The ultimate aim is to reach labs across Europe. According to Christian Smorra, the study’s co-senior author alongside Ulmer, the system’s transport range can be increased using mobile power generators that could enable longer transport routes and times. However, the next thing on the agenda – now that the transport system’s functionality has been proven with protons – is to attempt to transfer antiprotons. “If we also manage this, then it will mark the potential rise of a new era in antimatter precision research. We could then perform antiproton spectroscopy in the most suitable laboratories – so, also at HHU in the future.” The technology developed with STEP (Symmetry Tests in Experiments with Portable Antiprotons) support also has the potential to support the transport of other particles, ions and molecules for study outside of accelerator facilities. Ulmer concludes: “It should be possible to transport other exotic particles and molecules such as highly-charged ions, for example from GSI(opens in new window) in Darmstadt, or charged antimatter ions and molecular ions and to study them independently of accelerators.” For more information, please see: STEP project web page(opens in new window)
