CERN runs delicate test on transporting ultrasensitive antimatter

GENEVA (AP) — Scientists in Geneva are carrying out a very delicate test with antiprotons in a truck, as part of a first-of-its-kind road test.

If this so-called antimatter comes into contact with real matter – even for a fraction of an instant – it will be annihilated in a quick flash of energy. Thus, experts from the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, will carefully remove around a hundred antiprotons from their laboratory for four hours on Tuesday. They are suspended in a vacuum inside a specially designed box and held in place by supercooled magnets.

Then they’ll transport it in a truck and take about a half-hour drive to test how — if at all — the infinitesimal particles can be transported by road without escaping. If all goes well, the antiprotons will be returned to the laboratory.

The hardest part: Manipulating antimatter, like antiprotons, can be a tricky task. According to scientists’ current understanding of the universe, for every type of particle that exists, there is a corresponding antiparticle, matching the particle exactly but with an opposite charge.

If these opposites come into contact, they “annihilate” each other, unleashing a lot of energy, depending on the masses involved. Any obstacles on the road during the test that are not compensated for by the specially designed box could ruin the whole exercise.

Tuesday’s practice is a first step toward realizing hopes of one day delivering antiprotons from CERN to researchers at Heinrich Heine University in Düsseldorf, Germany, located about an eight-hour drive away under normal driving conditions.

The antiprotons were enclosed in a 1,000-kilogram (2,200-pound) box called a “transportable antiproton trap.” It is compact enough to fit through regular laboratory doors and fit on a truck. It uses superconducting magnets cooled to -269 degrees Celsius (-452 Fahrenheit) which allow the antiprotons to remain suspended in a vacuum, without touching the internal walls, which are made of… matter.

The mass of Tuesday’s test — slightly less than about 100 hydrogen atoms — is so small, experts say, that the worst possible outcome is the loss of the antiprotons. Even if they touch matter, any release of energy would be imperceptible; only an oscilloscope, which picks up electrical signals, would be able to detect it.

The trap, explains Sophie Tesauri, spokesperson for CERN, “is supposed to contain these antiprotons whatever happens: if the truck stops, if it starts again, if it has to brake suddenly, all that”. There is still work to be done: the trap alone can only hold the antiprotons for about four hours, and the journey to Düsseldorf is twice as long.

The Geneva-based center is best known for its Large Hadron Collider, an array of magnets that accelerates particles in a 27-kilometer (17-mile) underground tunnel and brings them together at speeds close to the speed of light. Scientists then study the results of these collisions.

But the sprawling, buzzing complex of scientific experiments isn’t just about smashing atoms together: the World Wide Web, for example, was invented here by Briton Tim Berners-Lee in 1989.

The Heinrich Heine University is considered a better place to study antiprotons in depth, because CERN – along with all its other activities – generates a lot of magnetic interference that can distort the study of antimatter.

But to get there, these antiprotons will have to avoid hitting anything in their path.

The center’s antiproton decelerator, where a beam of protons is fired into a block of metal, causes collisions that generate secondary particles, including many antiprotons. It is presented as a unique machine producing low energy antiprotons for the study of antimatter.

According to laboratory officials, the “CERN Antimatter Factory” is the only place in the world where scientists can store and study antiprotons.

The center has been experimenting with antimatter for years and has made breakthroughs in antimatter measurement, storage and interaction. Two years ago, the team transported a “cloud” of around 70 protons – not antiprotons – across the CERN campus.

It’s a similar exercise this time, except with antiprotons you need a much better vacuum chamber, according to Christian Smorra, leader of the team behind the device designed to store and transport antimatter.

The nervous test teams were not available for interviews before the exercise, but were expected to explain the results on Tuesday.