Experimental HEP Seminar

ALPHA - On the Road to Trapped Antihydrogen

Scott Menary

York University

The ALPHA experiment at CERN's Antiproton Decelerator aims to produce and spectroscopically analyze a sample of trapped antihydrogen atoms. The comparison of the spectra of antihydrogen to those of hydrogen allows for a very sensitive test of CPT. I will describe how we produce and trap antihydrogen. While I will describe the complete apparatus, I will focus on the silicon vertex detector as it is a Canadian responsibility and it is the most important diagnostic tool for determining how to optimize antihydrogen production. I will end with a status report and some future plans.