Abstract
The Einstein classical Weak Equivalence Principle states that the trajectory of a particle is independent of its composition and internal structure when it is only submitted to gravitational forces. This fundamental principle has never been directly tested with antimatter. However, theoretical models such as supergravity may contain components inducing repulsive gravity, thus violating this principle. The GBAR project (Gravitational Behaviour of Antihydrogen at Rest) proposes to measure the free fall acceleration of ultracold neutral antihydrogen atoms in the terrestrial gravitational field. The experiment consists in preparing antihydrogen ions (one antiproton and two positrons) and sympathetically cool them with Be+ ions to a few 10 μ K. The ultracold ions will then be photoionized just above threshold, and the free-fall time over a known distance measured. In this work, the GBAR project is described as well as possible improvements that use quantum reflection of antihydrogen on surfaces to use quantum methods of measurements.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Scherk, J.: Phys. Lett. B 88, 265 (1979). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TVN-46YKS47-2RB/2/014fc5233267c60b9065828f66c4ccce
Nieto, M.M., Goldman, T.: Phys. Rep. 205, 221 (1991). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TVP-46TY5BT-22/2/8354635bd464ffaea9ab3d82b6dd7820
Karshenboim, S.G.: Astron. Lett. 35, 663 (2009). doi:10.1134/S1063773709100028
Kostelecký, V.A., Tasson, J.D.: Phys. Rev. D 83, 016013 (2011). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevD.83.016013
Villata, M.: EPL (Europhys. Lett.) 94, 20001 (2011). http://stacks.iop.org/0295-5075/94/i=2/a=20001
Benoit-Lévy, A., Chardin, G.: Astron. Astrophys. 537(1), A78 (2012). doi:10.1051/0004-6361/201016103
Cabbolet, M.T.F.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 337, 5 (2012). doi:10.1007/s10509-011-0939-8
Villata, M.: Astrophys. Space Sci. 337, 15 (2012). doi:10.1007/s10509-011-0940-2
Hughes, R.J., Holzscheiter, M.H.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 854 (1991). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.66.854
Gabrielse, G., Khabbaz, A., Hall, D.S., Heimann, C., Kalinowsky, H., Jhe, W.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 82, 3198 (1999). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.82.3198
Apostolakis, A., Aslanides, E., Backenstoss, G., Bargassa, P., Behnke, O., Benelli, A., Bertin, V., Blanc, F., Bloch, P., Carlson, P., Carroll, M., Cawley, E., Chardin, G., Chertok, M.B., Danielsson, M., Dejardin, M., Derre, J., Ealet, A., Eleftheriadis, C., Faravel, W., Fetscher, L., Fidecaro, M., Filipčič, A., Francis, D., Fry, J., Gabathuler, E., Gamet, R., Gerber, H.J., Go, A., Haselden, A., Hayman, P.J., Henry-Couannier, F., Hollander, R.W., Jon-And, K., Kettle, P.R., Kokkas, P., Kreuger, R., Le Gac, R., Leimgruber, F., Mandić, I., Manthos, N., Marel, G., Mikuž, M., Miller, J., Montanet, F., Muller, A., Nakada, T., Pagels, B., Papadopoulos, I., Pavlopoulos, P., Polivka, G., Rickenbach, R., Roberts, B.L., Ruf, T., Sakeliou, L., Schäfer, M., Schaller, L.A., Schietinger, T., Schopper, A., Tauscher, L., Thibault, C., Touchard, F., Touramanis, C., Van Eijk, C.W.E., Vlachos, S., Weber, P., Wigger, O., Wolter, M., Zavrtanik, D., Zimmerman, D., Ellis, J., Mavromatos, N.E., Nanopoulos, D.V.: Phys. Lett. B 452, 425 (1999). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0370269399002713
Adelberger, E.G., Heckel, B.R., Stubbs, C.W., Su, Y.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 66, 850 (1991). http://prl.aps.org/abstract/PRL/v66/i7/p850_1
Goldman, T., Nieto, M.M., Holzscheiter, M.H., Darling, T.W., Schauer, M., Schecker, J.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 67, 1048 (1991). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.67.1048
Holzscheiter, M.H., Brown, R.E., Camp, J.B., Cornford, S., Darling, T., Dyer, P., Goldman, T., Høibråten, S., Hosea, K., Hughes, R.J., Jarmie, N., Kenefick, R.A., King, N.S.P., Lizon, D.C., Nieto, M.M., Midzor, M.M., Parry, S.P., Rochet, J., Ristinen, R.A., Schauer, M.M., Schecker, J.A., Witteborn, F.C.: Nucl. Phys. A 558, 709 (1993). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/037594749390432W
Drobychev, G.Y., Nédélec, P., Sillou, D., Gribakin, G., Walters, H., Ferrari, G., Prevedelli, M., Tino, G.M., Doser, M., Canali, C., Carraro, C., Lagomarsino, V., Manuzio, G., Testera, G., Zavatarelli, S., Amoretti, M., Kellerbauer, A.G., Meier, J., Warring, U., Oberthaler, M.K., Boscolo, I., Castelli, F., Cialdi, S., Formaro, L., Gervasini, A., Giammarchi, G., Vairo, A., Consolati, G., Dupasquier, A., Quasso, F., Stroke, H.H., Belov, A.S., Gninenko, S.N., Matveev, V.A., Byakov, V.M., Stepanov, S.V., Zvezhinskij, D.S., De Combarieu, M., Forget, P., Pari, P., Cabaret, L., Comparat, D., Bonomi, G., Rotondi, A., Djourelov, N., Jacquey, M., Büchner, M., Trénec, G., Vigué, J., Brusa, R.S., Mariazzi, S., Hogan, S., Merkt, F., Badertscher, A., Crivelli, P., Gendotti, U., Rubbia, A.: Proposal for the AEGIS experiment at the CERN antiproton decelerator (Antimatter Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy), Tech. Rep. SPSC-P-334. CERN-SPSC-2007-017. CERN, Geneva (2007). http://cds.cern.ch/record/1037532?ln=fr
Chardin, G., Grandemange, P., Lunney, D., Manea, V., Badertscher, A., Crivelli, P., Curioni, A., Marchionni, A., Rossi, B., Rubbia, A., Nesvizhevsky, V., Hervieux, P.-A., Manfredi, G., Comini, P., Debu, P., Dupré, P., Liszkay, L., Mansoulié, B., Pérez, P., Rey, J.-M., Ruiz, N., Sacquin, Y., Voronin, A., Biraben, F., Cladé, P., Douillet, A., Gérardin, A., Guellati, S., Hilico, L., Indelicato, P., Lambrecht, A., Guérout, R., Karr, J.-P., Nez, F., Reynaud, S., Tran, V.-Q., Mohri, A., Yamazaki, Y., Charlton, M., Eriksson, S., Madsen, N., van der Werf, D.-P., Kuroda, N., Torii, H., Nagashima, Y.: Proposal to measure the Gravitational Behaviour of Antihydrogen at Rest, Tech. Rep. CERN-SPSC-2011-029. SPSC-P-342. CERN, Geneva (2011). http://cds.cern.ch/record/1386684?ln=en
Alpha Collaboration, Charman, A.E.: Nat. Commun. 4, 1785 (2013). doi:10.1038/ncomms2787
Walz, J., Hänsch, T.W.: Gen. Relativ. Gravit. 36, 561 (2004). doi:10.1023/B:GERG.0000.010730.93408.87
Tranquille, G., Belochitskii, P., Eriksson, T., Maury, S., Oelert, W.: Conf. Proc. C1205201, THPPP017. 3 (2012)
Herfurth, F., Dilling, J., Kellerbauer, A., Bollen, G., Henry, S., Kluge, H.J., Lamour, E., Lunney, D., Moore, R.B., Scheidenberger, C., Schwarz, S., Sikler, G., Szerypo, J.: Nucl. Instr. Methods A 469, 254 (2001). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6TJM-43PGJKX-D/2/d5a71a85b9a62763e751fb5a1fcb3716
Lunney, D., Bachelet, C., Guénaut, C., Henry, S., Sewtz, M.: Nucl. Instr. Methods A 598, 379 (2009). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168900208014459
Oshima, N., Kojima, T.M., Niigaki, M., Mohri, A., Komaki, K., Yamazaki, Y.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 93, 195001 (2004). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.93.195001
Liszkay, L., Corbel, C., Perez, P., Desgardin, P., Barthe, M.-F., Ohdaira, T., Suzuki, R., Crivelli, P., Gendotti, U., Rubbia, A., Etienne, M., Walcarius, A.: Appl. Phys. Lett. 92, 063114 (2008). doi:10.1063/1.2844888. http://link.aip.org/link/?APL/92/063114/1
Cassidy, D.B., Crivelli, P., Hisakado, T.H., Liszkay, L., Meligne, V.E., Perez, P., Tom, H.W.K., Mills, A.P.: Phys. Rev. A 81, 012715 (2010). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.81.012715
Crivelli, P., Gendotti, U., Rubbia, A., Liszkay, L., Perez, P., Corbel, C.: Phys. Rev. A 81, 052703 (2010). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.81.052703
Comini, P., Hervieux, P.-A., Biraben, F.: These proceedings, Hyperfine Interaction. doi:10.1007/s10751-014-1030-y
Ball, H., Lee, M.W., Gensemer, S.D., Biercuk, M.J.: Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 063107 (2013). doi:10.1063/1.4811093
Lo, H.-Y., Alonso, J., Kienzler, D., Keitch, B.C., Clercq, L.E., Negnevitsky, V., Home, J.P.: Appl. Phys. B, 1 (2013). doi:10.1007/s00340-013-5605-0
Vasilyev, S., Nevsky, A., Ernsting, I., Hansen, M., Shen, J., Schiller, S.: Appl. Phys. B Lasers Opt. 103, 27 (2011). doi:10.1007/s00340-011-4435-1
Wilson, A.C., Ospelkaus, C., VanDevender, A.P., Mlynek, J.A., Brown, K.R., Leibfried, D., Wineland, D.J.: Appl. Phys. B 105, 741 (2011). doi:10.1007/s00340-011-4771-1
Larson, D.J., Bergquist, J.C., Bollinger, J.J., Itano, W.M., Wineland, D.J.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 57, 70 (1986). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.57.70
Barrett, M.D., DeMarco, B., Schaetz, T., Meyer, V., Leibfried, D., Britton, J., Chiaverini, J., Itano, W.M., Jelenkovicacute, B., Jost, J.D., Langer, C., Rosenband, T., Wineland, D.J.: Phys. Rev. A 68, 042302 (2003). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.68.042302
Heinzen, D.J., Wineland, D.J.: Phys. Rev. A 42, 2977 (1990). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.42.2977
Monroe, C., Meekhof, D.M., King, B.E., Jefferts, S.R., Itano, W.M., Wineland, D.J., Gould, P.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 75, 4011 (1995). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.75.4011
Bussmann, M., Schramm, U., Habs, D., Kolhinen, V.S., Szerypo, J.: Int. J. Mass Spectrom. 251, 179 (2006). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6VND-4JGJGXH-1/2/c3e1265f6ef86a3c9bfa07c0eab0d64e
Eble, J.F., Ulm, S., Zahariev, P., Schmidt-Kaler, F., Singer, K.: J. Opt. Soc. Am. B 27, A99 (2010). http://josab.osa.org/abstract.cfm?URI=josab-27-6-A99
Huber, G., Ziesel, F., Poschinger, U., Singer, K., Schmidt-Kaler, F.: Appl. Phys. B 100, 725 (2010). doi:10.1007/s00340-010-4148-x
Walther, A., Ziesel, F., Ruster, T., Dawkins, S.T., Ott, K., Hettrich, M., Singer, K., Schmidt-Kaler, F., Poschinger, U.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 109, 080501 (2012). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.109.080501
Shimizu, F.: Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 987 (2001). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.86.987
Dufour, G., Gérardin, A., Guérout, R., Lambrecht, A., Nesvizhevsky, V.V., Reynaud, S., Voronin, A.Y.: Phys. Rev. A 87, 012901 (2013). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.87.012901
Nesvizhevsky, V.V., Borner, H.G., Petukhov, A.K., Abele, H., Baeszler, S., Ruesz, F.J., Stoferle, T., Westphal, A., Gagarski, A.M., Petrov, G.A., Strelkov, A.V.: Nature 415, 297 (2002). doi:10.1038/415297a
Nesvizhevsky, V.V., Voronin, A.Y., Cubitt, R., Protasov, K.V.: Nat. Phys. 6, 114 (2010). doi:10.1038/nphys1478
Voronin, A.Y., Nesvizhevsky, V.V., Reynaud, S.: Phys. Rev. A 85, 014902 (2012). http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevA.85.014902
Voronin, A.Y., Nesvizhevsky, V.V., Reynaud, S.: J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 45, 165007 (2012). http://stacks.iop.org/0953-4075/45/i=16/a=165007
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Low Energy Antiproton Physics (LEAP 2013) held in Uppsala, Sweden, 10–15 June, 2013
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Indelicato, P., Chardin, G., Grandemange, P. et al. The Gbar project, or how does antimatter fall?. Hyperfine Interact 228, 141–150 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-014-1019-6
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-014-1019-6