Editing Antimatter (section)

===Antihydrogen atoms===
{{Main|Antihydrogen}}
<!-- Should antihelium be folded into this section? I haven't checked to see whether they'd created antihelium nuclei or true antihelium atoms with bound positrons. -->
{{Antimatter_facilities}}
In 1995, [[CERN]] announced that it had successfully brought into existence nine hot antihydrogen atoms by implementing the [[SLAC]]/[[Fermilab]] concept during the [[PS210 experiment]]. The experiment was performed using the [[Low Energy Antiproton Ring]] (LEAR), and was led by Walter Oelert and Mario Macri.<ref>{{Cite web
 |last=Gabrielse
 |first=Gerald
 |display-authors=etal
 |collaboration=ATRAP Collaboration
 |year=1996
 |title=The production and study of cold antihydrogen
 |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/299823/files/B00006161.pdf
 |pages=1–21
 |publisher=CERN
 |id=No. SPSLC-I-211
 |access-date=22 August 2018
 |archive-date=25 March 2020
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200325005019/https://cds.cern.ch/record/299823/files/B00006161.pdf
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> Fermilab soon confirmed the CERN findings by producing approximately 100 antihydrogen atoms at their facilities. The antihydrogen atoms created during PS210 and subsequent experiments (at both CERN and Fermilab) were extremely energetic and were not well suited to study. To resolve this hurdle, and to gain a better understanding of antihydrogen, two collaborations were formed in the late 1990s, namely, [[ATHENA]] and [[ATRAP]].

In 1999, CERN activated the [[Antiproton Decelerator]], a device capable of decelerating antiprotons from {{val|3.5|ul=GeV}} to {{val|5.3|u=MeV}}&nbsp;– still too "hot" to produce study-effective antihydrogen, but a huge leap forward. In late 2002 the ATHENA project announced that they had created the world's first "cold" antihydrogen.<ref>{{cite journal
 |last=Amoretti
 |first=M.
 |display-authors=etal
 |date=2002
 |title=Production and detection of cold antihydrogen atoms
 |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/581488
 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]
 |volume=419
 |issue=6906
 |pages=456–459
 |bibcode=2002Natur.419..456A
 |doi=10.1038/nature01096
 |pmid=12368849
 |s2cid=4315273
 |access-date=30 August 2017
 |archive-date=23 March 2020
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323082118/https://cds.cern.ch/record/581488
 |url-status=live
 |doi-access=free
 }}</ref> The ATRAP project released similar results very shortly thereafter.<ref>{{cite journal
 |last=Gabrielse
 |first=G.
 |display-authors=etal
 |date=2002
 |title=Background-free observation of cold antihydrogen with field ionization analysis of its states
 |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/977774
 |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]]
 |volume=89
 |issue=21
 |page=213401
 |bibcode=2002PhRvL..89u3401G
 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.89.213401
 |pmid=12443407
 |access-date=30 August 2017
 |archive-date=23 March 2020
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323082107/https://cds.cern.ch/record/977774
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> The antiprotons used in these experiments were cooled by decelerating them with the Antiproton Decelerator, passing them through a thin sheet of foil, and finally capturing them in a [[Penning-Malmberg trap|Penning–Malmberg trap]].<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last1=Malmberg |first1=J. H.
 |last2=deGrassie |first2=J. S.
 |date=1975
 |title=Properties of a nonneutral plasma
 |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]]
 |volume=35 |issue=9 |pages=577–580
 |bibcode=1975PhRvL..35..577M
 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.35.577
}}</ref> The overall cooling process is workable, but highly inefficient; approximately 25&nbsp;million antiprotons leave the Antiproton Decelerator and roughly 25,000 make it to the Penning–Malmberg trap, which is about {{sfrac|1|1000}} or 0.1% of the original amount.

The antiprotons are still hot when initially trapped. To cool them further, they are mixed into an electron plasma. The electrons in this plasma cool via cyclotron radiation, and then sympathetically cool the antiprotons via [[Coulomb potential|Coulomb]] collisions. Eventually, the electrons are removed by the application of short-duration electric fields, leaving the antiprotons with energies less than {{val|100|u=[[Electronvolt|meV]]}}.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Gabrielse |first=G.
 |display-authors=etal
 |date=1989
 |title=Cooling and slowing of trapped antiprotons below 100 meV
 |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]]
 |volume=63 |issue=13 |pages=1360–1363
 |bibcode=1989PhRvL..63.1360G
 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.63.1360
 |pmid=10040547
 }}</ref> While the antiprotons are being cooled in the first trap, a small cloud of positrons is captured from [[radioactive]] [[sodium]] in a Surko-style positron accumulator.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last1=Surko |first1=C. M.
 |last2=Greaves |first2=R. G.
 |date=2004
 |title=Emerging science and technology of antimatter plasmas and trap-based beams
 |journal=[[Physics of Plasmas]]
 |volume=11 |issue=5 |page=2333
 |bibcode=2004PhPl...11.2333S
 |doi=10.1063/1.1651487
}}</ref> This cloud is then recaptured in a second trap near the antiprotons. Manipulations of the trap electrodes then tip the antiprotons into the positron plasma, where some combine with antiprotons to form antihydrogen. This neutral antihydrogen is unaffected by the electric and magnetic fields used to trap the charged positrons and antiprotons, and within a few microseconds the antihydrogen hits the trap walls, where it annihilates. Some hundreds of millions of antihydrogen atoms have been made in this fashion.

In 2005, ATHENA disbanded and some of the former members (along with others) formed the [[ALPHA Collaboration]], which is also based at CERN. The ultimate goal of this endeavour is to test [[CPT symmetry]] through comparison of the [[atomic spectra]] of [[hydrogen]] and antihydrogen (see [[hydrogen spectral series]]).<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Madsen |first=N.
 |date=2010
 |title=Cold antihydrogen: a new frontier in fundamental physics
 |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A]]
 |volume=368 |issue=1924 |pages=3671–82
 |bibcode=2010RSPTA.368.3671M
 |doi=10.1098/rsta.2010.0026
 |pmid=20603376
|doi-access=free
 }}</ref>

Most of the sought-after high-precision tests of the properties of antihydrogen could only be performed if the antihydrogen were trapped, that is, held in place for a relatively long time. While antihydrogen atoms are electrically neutral, the [[Spin (physics)|spins]] of their component particles produce a [[magnetic moment]]. These magnetic moments can interact with an inhomogeneous magnetic field; some of the antihydrogen atoms can be attracted to a magnetic minimum. Such a minimum can be created by a combination of mirror and multipole fields.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last1=Pritchard |first1=D. E.
 |last2=Heinz |first2=T.
 |last3=Shen |first3=Y.
 |date=1983
 |title=Cooling neutral atoms in a magnetic trap for precision spectroscopy
 |journal=[[Physical Review Letters]]
 |volume=51 |issue=21 |pages=1983–1986
 |bibcode=1983PhRvL..51.1983T
 |doi=10.1103/PhysRevLett.51.1983
}}</ref> Antihydrogen can be trapped in such a magnetic minimum (minimum-B) trap; in November 2010, the ALPHA collaboration announced that they had so trapped 38 antihydrogen atoms for about a sixth of a second.<ref>
{{cite journal
 |last=Andresen |display-authors=etal
 |date=2010
 |title=Trapped antihydrogen
 |journal=[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]
 |volume=468 |issue=7324 |pages=673–676
 |bibcode=2010Natur.468..673A
 |doi=10.1038/nature09610
 |pmid=21085118
|s2cid=2209534
 }}</ref><ref>
{{cite web
 |title=Antimatter atoms produced and trapped at CERN
 |url=http://public.web.cern.ch/press/pressreleases/Releases2010/PR22.10E.html
 |publisher=[[CERN]]
 |access-date=20 January 2011
 |date=17 November 2010
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110123232026/http://public.web.cern.ch/press/pressreleases/Releases2010/PR22.10E.html
 |archive-date=23 January 2011
 |url-status=dead
 }}</ref> This was the first time that neutral antimatter had been trapped.

On 26 April 2011, ALPHA announced that they had trapped 309 antihydrogen atoms, some for as long as 1,000 seconds (about 17 minutes). This was longer than neutral antimatter had ever been trapped before.<ref>{{cite journal
 |author=ALPHA Collaboration
 |date=2011
 |title=Confinement of antihydrogen for 1,000 seconds
 |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/1347171
 |journal=[[Nature Physics]]
 |volume=7
 |issue=7
 |pages=558–564
 |arxiv=1104.4982
 |bibcode=2011NatPh...7..558A
 |doi=10.1038/nphys2025
 |s2cid=17151882
 |access-date=22 August 2018
 |archive-date=23 March 2020
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323082111/https://cds.cern.ch/record/1347171
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> ALPHA has used these trapped atoms to initiate research into the spectral properties of antihydrogen.<ref>{{Cite journal
 |last1=Amole
 |first1=C.
 |display-authors=etal
 |date=2012
 |title=Resonant quantum transitions in trapped antihydrogen atoms
 |url=https://cds.cern.ch/record/1430040/files/Nature_pre.pdf
 |journal=Nature
 |volume=483
 |issue=7390
 |pages=439–443
 |pmid=22398451
 |bibcode=2012Natur.483..439A
 |hdl=11568/757495
 |doi=10.1038/nature10942
 |s2cid=2321196
 |access-date=25 October 2017
 |archive-date=23 March 2020
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200323082130/https://cds.cern.ch/record/1430040/files/Nature_pre.pdf
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref>

In 2016, a new antiproton decelerator and cooler called ELENA (extra low energy antiproton decelerator) was built. It takes the antiprotons from the antiproton decelerator and cools them to 90&nbsp;keV, which is "cold" enough to study. This machine works by using high energy and accelerating the particles within the chamber. More than one hundred antiprotons can be captured per second, a huge improvement, but it would still take several thousand years to make a [[nanogram]] of antimatter.

The biggest limiting factor in the large-scale production of antimatter is the availability of antiprotons. Recent data released by CERN states that, when fully operational, their facilities are capable of producing ten million antiprotons per minute.<ref>{{cite journal
 |last=Madsen
 |first=N.
 |date=2010
 |title=Cold antihydrogen: a new frontier in fundamental physics
 |journal=[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A]]
 |volume=368
 |issue=1924
 |pages=3671–82
 |bibcode=2010RSPTA.368.3671M
 |doi=10.1098/rsta.2010.0026
 |pmid=20603376
 |url=https://zenodo.org/record/889475
 |doi-access=free
 |access-date=9 September 2019
 |archive-date=29 March 2020
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200329132655/https://zenodo.org/record/889475
 |url-status=live
 }}</ref> Assuming a 100% conversion of antiprotons to antihydrogen, it would take 100&nbsp;billion years to produce 1&nbsp;gram or 1 [[Mole (unit)|mole]] of antihydrogen (approximately {{val|6.02|e=23}} atoms of anti-hydrogen). However, CERN only produces 1% of the anti-matter Fermilab does, and neither are designed to produce anti-matter. According to Gerald Jackson, using technology already in use today we are capable of producing and capturing 20 grams of anti-matter particles per year at a yearly cost of 670 million dollars per facility.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Jackson |first1=Gerald |date=December 2022 |title=Antimatter-Based Propulsion for Exoplanet Exploration |url=https://www.ans.org/pubs/journals/nt/article-52262/ |journal=Nuclear Technology |volume=208 |issue=1 |pages=S107–S112|doi=10.1080/00295450.2021.1997057 |bibcode=2022NucTe.208S.107J |doi-access=free }}</ref>