ATHENA experiment

(Redirected from ATHENA)

"ATHENA" redirects here. For ESA X-ray space telescope, see Advanced Telescope
for High Energy Astrophysics. For the Greek goddess, see Athena. For other uses,
see Athena (disambiguation).

Antiproton decelerator
(AD)

ELENA Extra low energy antiproton ring – further decelerates

antiprotons coming from AD

AD experiments

ATHENA AD-1 Antihydrogen production and precision

experiments

ATRAP AD-2 Cold antihydrogen for precise laser spectroscopy

ASACUSA AD-3 Atomic spectroscopy and collisions with

antiprotons

ACE AD-4 Antiproton cell experiment

ALPHA AD-5 Antihydrogen laser physics apparatus

AEgIS AD-6 Antihydrogen experiment gravity interferometry

spectroscopy

GBAR AD-7 Gravitational behaviour of anti-hydrogen at rest

BASE AD-8 Baryon antibaryon symmetry experiment

PUMA AD-9 Antiproton unstable matter annihilation

ATHENA, also known as the AD-1 experiment, was an antimatter research project at
the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN, Geneva. In August 2002, it was the first
experiment to produce 50,000 low-energy antihydrogen atoms, as reported in Nature.[1]
 In 2005, ATHENA was disbanded and many of the former members of the research
[2]

team worked on the subsequent ALPHA experiment and AEgIS experiment.

Experimental setup[edit]

An actual matter-antimatter annihilation

due to an atom of antihydrogen in the ATHENA experiment. The antiproton produces
four charged pions (yellow) whose positions are given by silicon microstrips (pink)
before depositing energy in CsI crystals (yellow cubes). The positron also annihilates to
produce back-to-back gamma rays (red).
The ATHENA apparatus comprised four main subsystems: the antiproton catching trap,
the positron accumulator, the antiproton/positron mixing trap, and the antihydrogen
annihilation detector. All traps in the experiment were variations of the Penning trap,
which uses an axial magnetic field to transversely confine the charged particles, and a
series of hollow cylindrical electrodes to trap them axially. The catching and mixing
traps were adjacent to each other, and coaxial with a 3 T magnetic field from
a superconducting solenoid.[3][4]
The positron accumulator had its own magnetic system, also a solenoid, with a field
strength of 0.14 Tesla. A separate cryogenic heat exchanger in the bore of
the superconducting magnet cooled the catching and mixing traps to about 15 K. The
ATHENA apparatus featured an open, modular design that allowed experimental
flexibility, particularly in introducing large numbers of positrons into the apparatus.[5][6]
Catching trap[edit]
The catching trap slowed, trapped, cooled, and accumulated antiprotons. To cool
antiprotons, the catching trap was first loaded with 3×108 electrons, which cooled by
synchrotron radiation in the 3 Tesla magnetic field. Typically, the AD
delivered 2×107 antiprotons having kinetic energy 5.3 MeV and a pulse duration of 200
ns to the experiment at 100 s intervals. The antiprotons were slowed in a thin foil and
trapped using a pulsed electric field. The antiprotons lost energy and equilibrated with
the cold electrons by Coulomb interaction. The electrons were ejected before mixing the
antiprotons with positrons. Each AD shot resulted in about 3×103 cold antiprotons for
interaction experiments.[7]
Positron accumulator[edit]
The positron accumulator slowed, trapped and accumulated positrons emitted from a
radioactive source (1.4×109 Bq 22Na). Accumulation for 300 s yields 1.5×108 positrons,
50% of which were transferred to the mixing trap, where they cooled by synchrotron
radiation.[8]
Mixing trap[edit]
The mixing trap had the axial potential configuration of a nested Penning trap, which
permitted two plasmas of opposite charge to come into contact. In ATHENA, the
spheroidal positron cloud could be characterized by exciting and detecting axial plasma
oscillations. Typical conditions were: 7×107 stored positrons, a radius of 2 – 2.5 mm, a
length of 32 mm, and a maximum density of 2.5×108 cm−3. An antihydrogen annihilation
detector was situated coaxially with the mixing region, between the trap outer radius
and the magnet bore.
Antihydrogen annihilation detector[edit]
The detector was designed to provide unambiguous evidence for antihydrogen
production by detecting the temporally and spatially coincident annihilations of the
antiproton and positron when a neutral antihydrogen atom escaped the electromagnetic
trap and struck the trap electrodes. An antiproton typically annihilates into a few
charged or neutral pions. The charged pions were detected by two layers of double-
sided, position sensitive, silicon microstrips. The path of a charged particle passing
through both layers could be reconstructed, and two or more intersecting tracks allowed
determination of the position, or vertex, of the antiproton annihilation. The uncertainty in
vertex determination was approximately 4 mm and is dominated by the unmeasured
curvature of the charged pions' trajectories in the magnetic field. The temporal
coincidence window was approximately 5 microseconds. The solid angle coverage of
the interaction region was about 80% of 4π.[9]
A positron annihilating with an electron yields two or three photons. The positron
detector, comprising 16 rows each containing 12 scintillating, pure cesium-iodide-
crystals, was designed to detect the two-photon events, consisting of two 511 keV
photons which are always emitted back-to-back. The energy resolution of the detector
was 18% full width half maximum at 511 keV, and the photo-peak detection efficiency
for single photons was about 20%. The maximum readout rate of the whole detector
was about 40 Hz. Ancillary detectors included large scintillator paddles external to the
magnet, and a thin, position sensitive, silicon diode through which the incident
antiproton beam passed before entering the catching trap.
To produce antihydrogen atoms, a positron well in the mixing region was filled with
about 7×107 positrons and allowed to cool to the ambient temperature (15 kelvin). The
nested trap was then formed around the positron well. Next, approximately 104
antiprotons were launched into the mixing region by pulsing the trap from one potential
configuration to another. The mixing time is 190 s, after which all particles were dumped
and the process repeated. Events triggering the imaging silicon detector (three sides hit
in the outer layer) initiated readout of both the silicon and the CsI modules.
Using this method, ATHENA could produce – for the first time – several thousands of
cold antihydrogen atoms in 2002.[10]