ATHENA

ATHENA was an antimatter research project that took place at the AD Ring at CERN. In 2005 ATHENA was disbanded and many of the former members became the ALPHA Collaboration. In August 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] .

The experiment

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.

Collaboration

The ATHENA Collaboration comprised 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

References

ee also

*ALPHA Collaboration
* Antimatter
* CERN
* Particle physics

External links

* [http://athena.web.cern.ch/athena Official site]
* [http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/Welcome.html CERN's public site]