A decelerator to make antimatter

16 August 2000



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CERN, the European centre for research in particle physics near Geneva, is usually associated with large accelerators that take particles to the highest possible energies. However, its new Antimatter Factory that has started up this month, involves a machine designed to decelerate, or slow down, antiprotons, the antimatter counterparts of protons. This image shows the magnets of the new decelerator (to the left) and the line of magnets that bring in the antiproton beam for deceleration (to the right). The antiprotons are being used in experiments to search for subtle differences between matter and antimatter. Two of the experiments will add antielectrons (positrons) to the antiprotons to make atoms of antihydrogen - first made at CERN, but only in minute numbers, in 1996.

Credit: CERN Photo