The ALPHA instrument, built partly in Canada and operated at CERN in Geneva, allows researchers to create antihydrogen, hold it in a magnetic trap, and measure its properties. (Photo credit: Maximilien Brice, CERN)
New results from the ALPHA experiment at CERN have provided the most precise measurements yet of the electric charge of antihydrogen.
Researchers from the international collaboration – which includes many Canadians – examined whether or not antihydrogen atoms would react to electric fields. They did not and the data indicates that as predicted, antihydrogen is charge neutral to (-1.3 ± 1.1 ± 0.4) × 10-8 times the fundamental electric charge. This measurement is around one million times more precise than previous estimates.
Further experiments will try to establish why antimatter – which was produced as prolifically as matter in the Big Bang – is almost entirely absent from today’s universe.
Original research paper published in the the journal Nature Communications on June 3, 2014.
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