In a first, CERN scientists carry out laser cooling of Positronium
- February 23, 2024
- Posted by: OptimizeIAS Team
- Category: DPN Topics
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In a first, CERN scientists carry out laser cooling of Positronium
Subject: Science and tech
Section: Space technology
Context:
- An international team of physicists from the Anti-hydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS) collaboration has achieved a breakthrough by demonstrating the laser cooling of Positronium.
More on news:
- Physicists representing 19 European and one India research groups announced this scientific achievement.
- The experiment was performed at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, more popularly known as CERN, in Geneva.
- This is an important precursor experiment to the formation of antiHydrogen and the measurement of Earth’s gravitational acceleration on antihydrogen in the AEgIS experiment.
Timeline:
- It was formally accepted as a scientific experiment by CERN in 2008.
- The setting up of the AEgIS experiment, its construction and commissioning continued through 2012 – 2016.
- This comprised designing of the complex particle traps used to confine antiparticles, antiprotons and positrons.
- In 2018, AEgIS became the first in the world to demonstrate the pulsed production of antihydrogen atoms.
About Positronium:
- Positronium, comprising a bound electron ( e- ) and positron ( e+ ), is a fundamental atomic system.
- Due to its very short life, it annihilates with a half life of 142 nano-seconds.
- Its mass is twice the electron mass and enjoys the unique distinction of being a pure leptonic atom.
- This hydrogen-like system, with halved frequencies for excitation, makes it a great contender for attempting laser cooling and thereby performing tests of fundamental theories in physics.
- Experimentalists achieved laser cooling of Positronium atoms initially from ~380 Kelvin to ~170 Kelvin, and demonstrated the cooling in one dimension using a 70-nanosecond pulse of the alexandrite-based laser system.
- This experiment will pave the way for performing spectroscopic comparisons required for the Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), the study of the light and its interaction with charged matter, and a possible degenerate gas of Positronium down the road.
Benefits of the Experiment:
- According to CERN, the new scientific development will allow high-precision measurements of the properties and gravitational behavior of this exotic but simple matter–antimatter system, which could reveal newer physics.
- It also allows the production of a positronium Bose–Einstein condensate, in which all constituents occupy the same quantum state.
About CERN:
- European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) is the world’s largest nuclear and particle physics laboratory.
- It is situated in the North West suburbs of Geneva on the France-Swiss Border.
- It has 22 member states, four associate member states (including India and Pakistan) and three International Organisations have observer status.
- CERN operates the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) which is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator.
- It is associated with the discovery of the Higgs Boson which is popularly known as the God particle.
- Indian scientists have been active in construction of the LHC in the areas of design, development and supply of hardware accelerator components, software development and deployment in the machine.
- They also had played a significant role in the CMS (Compact Muon Experiment), one of the two large experiments that led to the discovery of the God particle.