Testing the Weak Equivalence Principle with an antimatter beam at CERN. (July 2015)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Kimura, M; Aghion, S; Amsler, C; Ariga, A; Ariga, T; Belov, A; Bonomi, G; Bräunig, P; Bremer, J; Brusa, R S; Cabaret, L; Caccia, M; Caravita, R; Castelli, F; Cerchiari, G; Chlouba, K; Cialdi, S; Comparat, D; Consolati, G; Demetrio, A; Derking, H; Noto, L Di; Doser, M; Dudarev, A; Ereditato, A; Ferragut, R; Fontana, A; Gerber, S; Giammarchi, M; Gligorova, A; Gninenko, S; Haider, S; Holmestad, H; Huse, T; Jordan, E J; Kawada, J; Kellerbauer, A; Krasnicky, D; Lagomarsino, V; Lehner, S; Malbrunot, C; Mariazzi, S; Matveev, V; Mazzotta, Z; Nebbia, G; Nedelec, P; Oberthaler, M; Pacifico, N; Pagano, D; Penasa, L; Petracek, V; Pistillo, C; Prelz, F; Prevedelli, M; Ravelli, L; Riccardi, C; Røhne, O M; Rosenberger, S; Rotondi, A; Sacerdoti, M; Sandaker, H; Santoro, R; Scampoli, P; Sorrentino, F; Spacek, M; Strojek, I M; Storey, J; Subieta, M; Testera, G; Widmann, E; Yzombard, P; Zavatarelli, S; Zmeskal, J;
• Other Names: collab.
• Is Part Of: Journal of physics. Number 631(2015)
• Publication Date: 2015-07
• Subjects: Physics -- Congresses; 530.5
• DOI: 10.1088/1742-6596/631/1/012047
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1742-6588

Abstract

Abstract: The goal of the AEgIS experiment is to measure the gravitational acceleration of antihydrogen – the simplest atom consisting entirely of antimatter – with the ultimate precision of 1%. We plan to verify the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP), one of the fundamental laws of nature, with an antimatter beam. The experiment consists of a positron accumulator, an antiproton trap and a Stark accelerator in a solenoidal magnetic field to form and accelerate a pulsed beam of antihydrogen atoms towards a free-fall detector. The antihydrogen beam passes through a moiré deflectometer to measure the vertical displacement due to the gravitational force. A position and time sensitive hybrid detector registers the annihilation points of the antihydrogen atoms and their time-of-flight. The detection principle has been successfully tested with antiprotons and a miniature moiré deflectometer coupled to a nuclear emulsion detector.