Accelerators validating antimatter physics
Antiprotons, stored and cooled at low energies in a storage ring or at rest in traps, are highly desirable for the investigation of basic questions on fundamental interactions, the static structure of antiprotonic atoms, CPT tests by high-resolution spectroscopy on antihydrogen, as well as gravity experiments. Antimatter experiments are at the cutting edge of science. They are, however, very difficult to realize and have been limited by the performance of the only existing facility in the world, the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN. The Extra Low Energy Antiproton ring (ELENA) will be a critical upgrade to this unique facility and commissioned from summer 2016. This will significantly enhance the beam quality and enable new experiments.
To fully exploit the discovery potential of this facility and to pave the way for a vibrant long-term physics program with low energy antiprotons, advances are urgently required in numerical tools that can adequately model beam transport, life time and interaction, beam diagnostics tools and detectors that can fully characterize the beam’s properties, as well as in into advanced experimental techniques for improved precision and novel experiments that exploit the enhanced beam quality that ELENA will provide. AVA is a new European training network between universities, research centers and industry that will carry out an interdisciplinary and cross-sector antimatter research and training program for a cohort of 15 Fellows. It targets new scientific and technical developments and aims at boosting the career prospects of all trainees.