ATHENA
Alternative use: AthenaATHENA is an
antimatter research project that is taking place at the AD Ring at
CERN. In
2002, it was the first experiment to produce 50,000 low-energy antihydrogen atoms, as reported in the journal
Nature[http://press.web.cern.ch/press/PressReleases/Releases2002/PR09.02Eantihydrogen.html Antihydrogen production press release by CERN].
For
antihydrogen to be created,
antiprotons and
positrons must first be prepared. Once the antihydrogen is created, a high-resolution detector is needed to confirm that the antihydrogen was created, as well as to look at the spectrum of the antihydrogen in order to compare it to "normal" hydrogen
[http://athena-positrons.web.cern.ch/ATHENA-positrons/wwwathena/overview.html Summary of how the ATHENA experiment works].
The antiprotons are obtained from CERN's Antiproton Decelerator while the positrons are obtained from a
positron accumulator. The antiparticles are then led into a recombination trap to create antihydrogen. The trap is surrounded by the ATHENA detector, which detects the annihilation of the antiprotons as well as the positrons.
The ATHENA Collaboration is comprised of the following institutions
[http://athena-positrons.web.cern.ch/ATHENA-positrons/wwwathena/collaboration.html ATHENA Collaboration]:
*
University of Aarhus, Denmark
*
University of Brescia, Italy
*
CERN*
University of Genoa, Italy
*
University of Pavia, Italy
*
RIKEN, Japan
*
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
*
University of Wales Swansea, United Kingdom
*
University of Tokyo, Japan
*
University of Zurich, Switzerland
*
National Institute for Nuclear Physics, Italy
*
Antimatter*
CERN*
Particle physics*
Official site*
CERN's public site
