The Effect of Gravity on Antimatter: The ALPHA Experiment

Although the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter has been the subject of theoretical speculation since the discovery of the latter in 1928, only recently was the ALPHA experiment at CERN able to observe, for the first time, the effects of gravity on antimatter atoms, namely on an...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Germano Bonomi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2025-02-01
Series:Particles
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2571-712X/8/1/20
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Summary:Although the gravitational interaction between matter and antimatter has been the subject of theoretical speculation since the discovery of the latter in 1928, only recently was the ALPHA experiment at CERN able to observe, for the first time, the effects of gravity on antimatter atoms, namely on antihydrogen. After an introduction of the concept of antimatter, along with its still-unresolved mysteries, details about how antihydrogen is produced at the Antimatter Factory at CERN will be given. Finally, the measurement of the acceleration of gravity of antihydrogen atoms falling in the Earth’s gravitational field will be described.
ISSN:2571-712X