Probing the gravitational behaviour of antimatter with the AEgIS experiment at CERN

by Lillian Smestad (Research Council of Norway/CERN, the AEgIS collaboration)

Monday 5 Feb 2018, 14:15 → 16:45 Europe/Berlin

3344 (TUM - Physics Department - Garching)

Antimatter remains one of the biggest mysteries of physics; which differences between matterand antimatter renders the observable universe possible is still an open question. The AEgIS experiment, located at the Antiproton Decelerator of CERN, aims for a first precise direct measurement of the gravitational behaviour of antimatter; to test the Weak Equivalence Principle with antihydrogen in Earth’s gravitational field. The measurement will be performed
with a beam of cold antihydrogen passing through a classical moiré deflectometer. An outline of the experimental idea and setup will be given, as the steps needed to create cold antihydrogen through a charge-exchange process between trapped antiprotons and a burst of positronium; manipulations on antiprotons in the traps of the experiment, formation of positronium and the subsequent laser excitation of it. Alongside the experimental details of
AEgIS, an impression of the general challenges of antimatter physics and the approaches to solve them will be conveyed.