CERN has developed and successfully tested a portable containment system capable of transporting antimatter safely over long distances. This marks a scientific milestone that will enable scientists to share precious antiproton samples with laboratories across Europe.
Antimatter are particles identical to matter but with opposite charge. They annihilate on contact with normal matter, releasing energy and making it exceptionally difficult to store or study outside its production site.
The container made by CERN maintains the antihydrogen and antiprotons at temperatures near 5 K and uses superconducting magnets to confine particles. Built‑in accelerometers and thermal sensors monitor environmental stresses during transit, further providing safety.
An internal accelerometer records g‑forces during transit. Meanwhile, embedded temperature sensors log any thermal excursions when the container reconnects to external power or is handled. The vessel’s vacuum insulation and multilayer magnetic shielding protect the trap from ambient magnetic field fluctuations. Otherwise the stored antimatter could destabilize.
By decoupling production from measurement sites, researchers can perform high‑precision CPT‑invariance tests, gravity studies with antihydrogen, and spectroscopy experiments at facilities that lack in‑house sources, greatly expanding collaborative opportunities in fundamental physics.
CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator and Extra Low Energy Antiproton ring usually produces low‑energy antiprotons and antihydrogen for experiments. These experiments are usually focused on probing fundamental symmetries, gravity’s effect on antimatter, and particle asymmetry in the universe. Until now, all precision measurements were confined to CERN’s campus in Geneva.
With portable antimatter traps, laboratories at institutions such as INFN in Italy, DESY in Germany, and INRIM in France can now request antiproton samples for their experiments.