Grant: Subatomic Physics Envelope - Project

ALPHA is an experiment based at CERN. The ALPHA collaboration involves scientists from 15 institutions in 8 countries. Approximately one-third of these scientists come from Canadian research laboratories and universities - the single largest group from any country. The Canadian team has made numerous important contributions to this project since its inception, and in 2009 was awarded Project Grant funding from NSERC. The goal of the ALPHA project is to measure and compare certain properties of 'antihydrogen atoms' - the simplest atomic form of neutral antimatter - with those of ordinary hydrogen atoms. In doing so, the collaboration will directly test and challenge fundamental theories about similarities and differences ('symmetries') between matter and antimatter, an issue that is arguably one of the greatest unsolved problems in physics. Unlike any previous direct comparison between matter and antimatter, the ALPHA collaboration is attempting to perform the first such experiment that actually involves antimatter atoms. This proposal requests three years of funding to support a vibrant and critical program of Canadian-led contributions to Project ALPHA. It is being made at a pivotal point in time: the ALPHA collaboration has recently demonstrated the first-ever stable and reproducible confinement of antimatter atoms. From the outset, the Canadian team has been the driving force behind the subatomic physics aspects of the project. More recently they devised and developed the tools and techniques that will be needed to perform spectroscopy experiments on trapped antimatter atoms. The requested funding will enable the Canadian team to continue to play leading roles in both initiatives; it will provide trainees with fascinating and extensive exposure to research involving sophisticated particle detectors and electronics, microwave technologies, cryogenic systems, and truly fundamental physics.