CERN scientists capture anti-hydrogen atoms

As part of a major international experiment called ALPHA, based at CERN in Switzerland, researchers have helped to achieve trapping and holding atoms of ‘anti-hydrogen’, which has not been possible until now.

The project involves physicists at Swansea University led by Prof Mike Charlton, Dr Niels Madsen and Dr Dirk Peter van der Werf and Liverpool University under Prof Paul Nolan, all supported by the EPSRC.

This breakthrough will make it possible to study ‘anti-matter’ closely for the first time and so develop unprecedented insight into its composition and structure and improve understanding of the fundamental physical principles that underpin the Universe and the way it works.

For nearly a decade, scientists have been able to undertake the controlled production of anti-hydrogen atoms in the laboratory, a breakthrough that Swansea University contributed to.

But as anti-matter particles are instantly annihilated when they come into contact with matter, it has not, until now, been feasible to study anti-hydrogen atoms in any detail.