The British “Nature” magazine recently published a particle physics research result: CERN scientists have completed the most accurate spectral measurement of antimatter so far. This measurement not only proves the ability of anti-atomic spectroscopy, but also advances the high-precision detection of anti-laser pointer by a large step.
A huge challenge for contemporary physicists is to explain why matter, not antimatter, “survived” in the Big Bang. Because according to the prediction of the classic model, after the Big Bang, there were originally equal amounts of matter and antimatter, but now, the universe is almost entirely composed of matter. For this reason, acquiring antimatter and understanding its properties is considered extremely important.
In the field of spectroscopy, scientists use lasers to excite atoms and examine how they absorb or emit light to determine the properties of atomic transitions. Although the same technology can also be used to study antiatoms, antimatter is very difficult to generate and capture, and it will annihilate once in contact with matter, so it is also difficult to measure its characteristics.
At the end of 2017, the European Nuclear Center’s ALPHA cooperation group published a paper in the journal Nature, reporting on experimental observations of laser-driven antihydrogen 1S-2S transitions (from ground state to excited state). Perform spectral measurements. Now, the cooperation team and the physicist Jeffrey Hengst of Aarhus University in Denmark and colleagues have described in detail the characteristics of one of the ultrafine components of this transition.
The research team measured about 15,000 anti-hydrogen atoms, which were magnetically trapped in a 280 mm long, 44 mm diameter cylinder. The researchers conducted a 10-week measurement and finally found that the resonance frequency of the anti-hydrogen transition is consistent with the expected frequency of the hydrogen 1S-2S transition, and its measurement accuracy is two parts per trillion. This is the most accurate laser pointer spectral detection of antimatter ever. It marks a significant step for humans to measure antimatter behavior and understand its “ultimate mystery”.