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ALPHA Antimatter Project at CERN

 

Fundamental Symmetry Tests with Trapped Antihydrogen
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ALPHA DetectorALPHA Canada studetns and faculty members at CERN, Nov 17, 2010 

The Science

ALPHA is an international collaboration based at CERN, which studies of antihydrogen atoms, the antimatter counterpart of the simplest atom, hydrogen. By comparisons of hydrogen and antihydrogen, the experiment hopes to understand fundamental symmetries between matter and antimatter. 

ALPHA-Canada

The Canadian group (ALPHA-Canada) is a significant group in ALPHA, constituting more than 1/3 of the international collaboration. ALPHA-Canada consists of a dozen researchers and students from 5 Canadian institutions (UBC, Calgary, SFU, York, and TRIUMF). ALPHA-Canada plays a leading role in both the particle physics and the atomic spectroscopy aspects of the experiment. Current major projects we are involved in include:

  • ALPHA-2: Precision antihydrogen spectroscopy 
  • ALPHA-g: Antihydrogen gravity measurement
  • HAICU: Development for quantum sensing techniques for antimatter

Students Opportunities

Trapping and spectroscopy of antihydrogen is a challenging task, and requires a wide variety of techniques ranging from ion and atom trapping, to manipulations of cold plasmas, to precision laser and microwave spectroscopy, to sophisticated particle physics detection and analysis. Hence it is an excellent training ground for students. Graduate students typically spend up to several months a year in Geneva to participate in the experiment. If you are interested in working with us, please contact any of ALPHA-Canada faculty members.

 

ALPHA-Canada contact:

Dr. Makoto C. Fujiwara, TRIUMF
Makoto.Fujiwara@triumf.ca
Ph: +1-604-222-7585 (Vancouver)
Ph: +41-75-411-3828 (Geneva)

 

ALPHA at CERN

ALPHA-Canada Members

LEAP2011 - 10th International Conference on Antiproton Physics