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Title: Description and first application of a new technique to measure the gravitational mass of antihydrogen

Journal Article · · Nature Communications
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2787· OSTI ID:1623908
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  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics
  2. York Univ., Toronto, ON (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  3. Simon Fraser Univ., Burnaby, BC (Canada). Dept. of Physics
  4. Swansea Univ. (United Kingdom). College of Science. Dept. of Physics; Univ. of Manchester (United Kingdom). School of Physics and Astronomy; The Cockcroft Inst., Warrington (United Kingdom). Daresbury Lab.
  5. European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Geneva (Switzerland). Dept. of Physics
  6. Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). Instituto de Fısica. Departmento de Fısica Nuclear
  7. Swansea Univ. (United Kingdom). College of Science. Dept. of Physics
  8. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States). Dept. of Physics; Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  9. Univ. of Calgary, AB (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  10. TRIUMF, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Science Division
  11. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  12. Aarhus Univ. (Denmark). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy
  13. Univ. of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC (Canada). Dept. of Physics and Astronomy; Canadian Inst. of Advanced Research, Toronto, ON (Canada)
  14. Stockholm Univ. (Sweden). Dept. of Physics
  15. Univ. of Liverpool (United Kingdom). Dept. of Physics
  16. Auburn Univ., AL (United States). Dept. of Physics
  17. NRCN-Nuclear Research Center Negev, Beer Sheva IL (Israel). Dept. of Physics

Physicists have long wondered whether the gravitational interactions between matter and antimatter might be different from those between matter and itself. Although there are many indirect indications that no such differences exist and that the weak equivalence principle holds, there have been no direct, free-fall style, experimental tests of gravity on antimatter. Here we describe a novel direct test methodology; we search for a propensity for antihydrogen atoms to fall downward when released from the ALPHA antihydrogen trap. In the absence of systematic errors, we can reject ratios of the gravitational to inertial mass of antihydrogen 475 at a statistical significance level of 5%; worst-case systematic errors increase the minimum rejection ratio to 110. A similar search places somewhat tighter bounds on a negative gravitational mass, that is, on antigravity. This methodology, coupled with ongoing experimental improvements, should allow us to bound the ratio within the more interesting near equivalence regime.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES)
Contributing Organization:
The ALPHA Collaboration
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1623908
Journal Information:
Nature Communications, Vol. 4, Issue 1; ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher:
Nature Publishing GroupCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Quantum formulation of the Einstein equivalence principle journal August 2018
Matter-wave interferometry with atoms in high Rydberg states journal April 2019
Separated oscillatory field measurement of hydrogen 2 S 1 / 2 -2 P 3 / 2 fine structure interval journal February 1994
Interference of several gravitational quantum states of antihydrogen in GBAR experiment journal April 2019
Aspects of 1 S -2 S spectroscopy of trapped antihydrogen atoms journal September 2017
Experimental progress in positronium laser physics journal March 2018
Investigation of the fine structure of antihydrogen journal February 2020
Gravity, antimatter and the Dirac-Milne universe journal October 2018
The ATHENA experiment for the study of antihydrogen journal August 2014
Observation of the 1S–2S transition in trapped antihydrogen journal December 2016
Prospects for comparison of matter and antimatter gravitation with ALPHA-g journal February 2018
Precision measurements on trapped antihydrogen in the ALPHA experiment journal February 2018
Antihydrogen trapping assisted by sympathetically cooled positrons journal June 2014
Lyman-α source for laser cooling antihydrogen journal January 2018
Laser-driven production of the antihydrogen molecular ion journal October 2019
Focusing of a Rydberg Positronium Beam with an Ellipsoidal Electrostatic Mirror journal August 2017
Antiproton charge radius journal September 2016
Studying Antimatter Gravity with Muonium journal April 2018
Physics with antihydrogen journal October 2015
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Efficient 2 S 3 positronium production by stimulated decay from the 3 P 3 level journal December 2019
Negative Mass Can Be Positively Useful in Quantum Mechanics: Negative Mass in Quantum Mechanics journal February 2018
Quantum test of the equivalence principle for atoms in coherent superposition of internal energy states journal June 2017
Nonlinear dynamics of anti-hydrogen in magnetostatic traps: implications for gravitational measurements journal October 2013
Comparison of classical and quantum models of anti-hydrogen formation through charge exchange journal May 2019
Equivalence principle for antiparticles and its limitations journal October 2019
Radially selective inward transport of positrons in a Penning–Malmberg trap journal July 2014
Studying antimatter gravity with muonium text January 2018
Antimatter gravity and the Universe journal November 2019
Axial to transverse energy mixing dynamics in octupole-based magnetostatic antihydrogen traps journal May 2018
Gravitational and matter-wave spectroscopy of atomic hydrogen at ultra-low energies journal February 2019
Prospects for testing Lorentz and CPT symmetry with antiprotons journal February 2018
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Testing gravity with cold atom interferometry: results and prospects journal March 2021
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Gravity, antimatter and the Dirac-Milne universe text January 2018