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)

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.

Names and affiliations of selected authors

Makoto Fujiwara, TRIUMF – Canada’s National Lab for Particle and Nuclear Physics, British Columbia

Scott Menary, York University, Ontario