Dice Question Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Test the universality of free fall for antimatter using antihydrogen

Establish whether antihydrogen atoms experience the same gravitational acceleration as ordinary matter in Earth's gravitational field, thereby testing the universality of free fall for antimatter.

Information Square Streamline Icon: https://streamlinehq.com

Background

The article describes ongoing experiments at CERNā€™s Antimatter Factory aimed at precision studies of antihydrogen, including spectroscopic measurements and gravitational tests. A key question is whether antimatter falls with the same acceleration as matter or could exhibit anomalous behavior such as gravitational repulsion.

Although indications suggest that antimatter falls downward, definitive measurements of the acceleration equality had not yet been achieved at the time referenced in the article.

References

Curiously, there are also attempts to elucidate whether the š» atoms fall in the Earth's gravitational field with the same acceleration as matter; that is, if antimatter participates in the universality of free fall. No results have been obtained yet, apart that antimatter indeed falls down, as most physicists believed (there were those who bet on the possibility that antimatter could feel gravitational repulsion towards matter, so that the š» atoms, instead of falling, would rise in the Earth's gravitational field).

— Antimatter (2412.12128 - Gato-Rivera, 5 Dec 2024) in Section 4. Experiments with antiatoms