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 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.
Authors
- G. Bonomi (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1618-9648)
Institutions
- Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Sezione di Pavia (IT)
- University of Brescia (IT)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Particles
- Published
- 2025-02-20
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.3390/particles8010020
- Primary Topic
- Cosmology and Gravitation Theories
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.00
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- U.S. Department of Energy
- TRIUMF
- Leverhulme Trust
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
- Israel Science Foundation
- Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
- Science and Technology Facilities Council