CERN team traps antimatter for quarter of an hour

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.