Physicists trap a single antimatter particle for a month
Physicists at Northwestern University have trapped a single positron—the antimatter counterpart of an electron—for a month, and potentially indefinitely, using a wall-less electromagnetic trap cooled to a fraction of a degree above absolute zero. The team slowed positrons from decaying sodium-22 through a tungsten crystal, then confined one in a vacuum. They now plan to measure its magnetic moment to test whether matter and antimatter behave identically, which could help explain why the universe is made of matter.
If you want to hold on to antimatter, you have to hold it in a container without walls.
- foobarbecue
I don't get how they know they have one in there. I mean they're measuring the magnetic field but how on earth do you make sufficiently precise measurements to detect a single particle!?!
Edit: this is explained pretty extensively in the paper (https://cfp.physics.northwestern.edu/documents/2026OnePositr...). I'm gonna need to do some background reading though...
- fsh
Exciting results. The electron's magnetic moment is probably the most precise standard model prediction, and Gabrielse's group has measured it with 13 digits of accuracy. The positron is predicted to have exactly the same magnetic moment, but this has not been measured since 1987. With the new trap, they should be able to finally match the electron's precision.
- lifeisstillgood
The parents of the anti-matter particle then freeze time just as the containment is about to explode, allowing Picard and Geordi to wander
around the facility looking for clues - until one scientists head slowly turns - they are also awake !!
- dguest
Direct link to article: https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.08147
- androiddrew
I kind of want to know how they safely deal with its release (destruction)