Speaker
Description
The lack of antimatter in our universe challenges our understanding of nature at a fundamental level. The Standard Model of particle physics predicts that matter and antimatter should exist in equal proportions in the universe, yet we live in a matter-dominated universe. One motivation for studying antimatter is to test whether subtle differences between matter and antimatter could point to physics beyond the Standard Model. Precise comparisons between the simplest atomic systems of matter and antimatter, hydrogen and antihydrogen, provide especially sensitive tests, as the Standard Model predicts their spectra should be identical. In my research, I am developing a new technique to measure the ground-state hyperfine splitting of antihydrogen, a feature in the spectrum of antihydrogen that can be directly compared with hydrogen. I intend to improve the precision of this measurement by inducing antiproton (the antimatter counterpart to the proton) spin flips, which are insensitive to magnetic field variations near a specific field strength. To this end, I am developing a new microwave injection system compatible with the restrictive geometry of antihydrogen traps, capable of delivering the required microwave frequency to trapped antihydrogen atoms. This system will be integrated into the existing experimental infrastructure at the ALPHA Collaboration at CERN. By enabling more precise measurements of antihydrogen’s ground-state hyperfine splitting, my research will provide precise experimental tests of matter–antimatter symmetry.
| Keyword-1 | Antihydrogen |
|---|---|
| Keyword-2 | Antimatter |
| Keyword-3 | Hyperfine Splitting |