TRIUMF! Scientist Capture Anti-Matter

Rob Thompson (left), University of Calgary professor, and Makoto Fujiwara, University of Calgary adjunct professor and TRIUMF research scientist, stand next to the superconducting magnet which is part of their research at CERN. Credit: University of Calgary

A team made up of researchers from the University of Calgary, institutions across Canada and around the world have discovered how to trap atomic antimatter and the results of their discovery is published in the journal Nature.

"This is a major discovery. It could enable experiments that result in dramatic changes to the current view of fundamental physics or in confirmation of what we already know now," says Rob Thompson, head of physics and astronomy at the University of Calgary and co-investigator in the ALPHA collaboration, one of two teams competing to gain a better understanding of antimatter and our universe.

Both teams, ALPHA and the Harvard-led ATRAP, have been at this race for over five years conducting experiments in close quarters at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research), the world's largest particle physics lab, located in the suburbs of Geneva, Switzerland. CERN is the only laboratory in the world with the proper equipment where this research can be carried out.

"These are significant steps in antimatter research," said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer, "and an important part of the very broad research programme at CERN."