Thursday, March 9, 2017, 16:00
WHGA Auditorium
J.S. Hangst, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University,
and Spokesperson, the ALPHA Collaboration at CERN
Abstract:
We have recently become able to study atoms of antihydrogen - the
antimatter equivalent of hydrogen. The question to be addressed is
fundamental and profound: "Do matter and antimatter obey the same laws
of physics?" The so-called Standard Model of fundamental particles and
interactions requires that hydrogen and antihydrogen have the same
spectrum. I will discuss the latest exciting development in antihydrogen
physics: observation of a laser-driven transition (1S-2S) in trapped
antihydrogen [1]. Precise measurement of the frequency of this transition
could well be described as the `holy grail' of physics with anti-atoms.
To study antihydrogen, it must first be produced, then trapped [2], and
then held for long enough [3] to observe a transition using very few
anti-atoms. I will discuss the techniques necessary to achieve this
latest milestone, and then consider the future of optical and microwave
[4] spectroscopy, and gravitational studies [5] with antihydrogen.
1. Ahmadi W. et al., Observation of the 1s-2s Transition in Trapped Antihydrogen, Nature doi:10.1038/nature21040 (2016).
2. Andresen, G.B. et al., Trapped Antihydrogen, Nature, 468, 673 (2010).
3. Andresen, G. B. et al. Confinement of antihydrogen for 1,000 seconds. Nature Physics 7, 558 (2011).
4. Amole, C. et al., Resonant quantum transitions in trapped antihydrogen atoms, Nature 483, 439 (2012).
5. Amole, C. et al., Description and first application of a new
technique to measure the gravitational mass of antihydrogen, Nature
Communications DOI: 10.1038/ncomms2787 (2013).