Abstract
The GBAR project (Gravitational Behaviour of Anti hydrogen at Rest) at CERN, aims to measure the free fall acceleration of ultracold neutral anti hydrogen atoms in the terrestrial gravitational field. The experiment consists preparing anti hydrogen ions (one antiproton and two positrons) and sympathetically cooling them with Be + ions to less than 10 μK. The ultracold ions will then be photo-ionized just above threshold, and the free fall time over a known distance measured. We will describe the project, the accuracy that can be reached by standard techniques, and discuss a possible improvement to reduce the vertical velocity spread.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adelberger, E.G., et al.: Does antimatter fall with the same acceleration as ordinary matter? Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 850–853 (1991)
Goldman, T., et al.: Comment on does antimatter fall with the same acceleration as ordinary matter? Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 1048 (1991)
Gabrielse, G., et al.: Precision mass spectroscopy of the antiproton and proton using simultaneously trapped particles. Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3198 (1999)
Pakvasa, S., Simmons, W. A., Weiler, T. J.: Test of equivalence principle for neutrinos and antineutrinos. Phys. Rev. D 39, 1761 (1989)
Amole, C., et al.: Description and first application of a new technique to measure the gravitational mass of antihydrogen. Nat. Commun. 4, 1785 (2013)
Kellerbauer, A., et al.: Proposed antimatter gravity measurement with an Antihydrogen Beam. Nucl. Instr. and Meth. B 266, 351–356 (2008)
Pérez, P., Rosowsky, A.: A New path toward gravity experiments with antihydrogen. Nucl. Instr. Meth. A 545, 20–30 (2005)
Walz, J., Hänsch, T.: A proposal to measure antimatter gravity using ultracold antihydrogen atoms. Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 36, 561–570 (2004)
Comini, P., Hervieux, P-A.: \(\mathrm {\overline {H}^{+}}\)ion production from collisions between antiprotons and excited positronium: cross sections calculations in the framework of the GBAR experiment. New J. Phys. 15, 095022 (2013)
Comini, P., et al.: \(\mathrm {\overline {H}^{+}}\)production from collisions between positronium and kev antiprotons for GBAR. Hyp. Int. 228, 159–165 (2014)
Chardin, G., et al.: GBAR, Proposal to Measure the Gravitational Behaviour of Antihydrogen at Rest, CERN-SPSC-P-342, 30/09/2011
Carli, C.: see proceedings in this conference
Cassidy, D.B., et al.: Positronium cooling in porous silica measured via doppler spectroscopy. Phys. Rev. A 81, 012715 (2010)
Crivelli, P., et al.: Measurement of the Ortho-positronium Confinement Energy in Mesoporous Thin Films. Phys. Rev. A 81, 052703 (2010)
Crivelli, P., et al.: Experimental considerations for testing antimatter antigravity using positronium 1S-2S spectroscopy. Int. J. Mod. Phys. Conf. Ser. 30, 1460257 (2014)
Comini, P.: PhD thesis, Université Paris 6, to be published
Oshima, N., et al.: New scheme for positron accumulation in ultrahigh vacuum. Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 195001 (2004)
Dupré, P.: A new scheme to accumulate positrons in a penning-malmberg trap with a linac-based positron pulsed source. AIP Conf. Proc. 1521, 113 (2013)
Grandemange, P., et al.: First results of a new positron-accumulation scheme using an electron linac and a penning-malmberg trap. J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 505, 012035 (2014)
Hilico, L., et al.: Preparing single ultra-cold antihydrogen atoms for the free-fall in GBAR. Int. J. Mod. Phys: Conf. Ser. 30, 1460269 (2014)
Procureur, S., et al.: Genetic Multiplexing and First Results with a 50×50cm 2 Micromegas, NIM A, 729, 888 (2013)
Dufour, G., et al.: Shaping the distribution of vertical velocities of antihydrogen in GBAR. Eur. Phys. J. C 74, 2731 (2014)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Proceedings of the International Conference on Exotic Atoms and Related Topics (EXA 2014), Vienna, Austria, 15-19 September 2014
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Pérez, P., Banerjee, D., Biraben, F. et al. The GBAR antimatter gravity experiment. Hyperfine Interact 233, 21–27 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-015-1154-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-015-1154-8