GENEVA, March 25 (Xinhua) -- A European particle physics laboratory on Tuesday successfully transported a trap filled with antiprotons by truck across its main site, marking a world-first in delivering antimatter.
Antimatter is a class of particles with opposite charge and parity to ordinary matter and is difficult to preserve because the two annihilate on contact.
So scientists at CERN, one of the world's largest nuclear research centers, were extremely careful when they transported 92 antiprotons in a specially designed bottle that uses magnetic fields to trap the particles, loading it onto a truck for a short ride and continuing experiments after transport.
According to CERN, the experiment aims to deliver antiprotons to laboratories where they can be studied with greater precision than at its "antimatter factory," the only place in the world where antiprotons are produced and stored.
The machines in the antimatter factory "generate magnetic field fluctuations that limit how far we can push our precision measurements," said Stefan Ulmer, the spokesperson for Tuesday's test run, adding that the experiment has to be moved out of the building to gain a deeper understanding of antiprotons.
Christian Smorra, the project's leader, said it takes at least 8 hours to reach their first destination, Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf in Germany. "What we achieved today with antiprotons is a huge leap forward towards our objective," he said. ■
