In a first, CERN Scientists carry out LASER cooling of Positronium | Current Affairs | Vision IAS
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  • An international team of physicists from Anti-hydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS) collaboration has achieved this breakthrough.
    • AEgIS is one of several experiments at CERN’s Antimatter Factory with goal of direct measurement of Earth's gravitational acceleration (g) on antihydrogen.
    • AEgIS is a collaboration of physicists from a number of countries in Europe and from India.
  • Positronium (Ps), discovered in 1951, is the lightest known atom, consisting only of an electron (e) and a positron (e+).
    • Ps has a very short lifetime, annihilating into gamma rays in 142 billionths of a second.
    • Because it comprises just two point-like particles, the electron and its antimatter, it’s a perfect system for experiments under AEgIS, provided it can be cooled enough to measure it with high precision.

 

  • Matter – Antimatter
    • Matter comes in many forms—solids, liquids, gases, and plasmas - consisting of subatomic particles that give them mass and volume. 
      • Sub-atomic particles include protons and neutrons (also known as baryons), electrons and neutrinos (also known as leptons), and other particles.
    • All subatomic particles either have their own anti-twins (antiquarks, antiprotons, antineutrons, and antileptons such as antielectrons) or straddle between matter and antimatter.
      • Anti-particles can combine to form anti-atoms and, in principle, could even form anti-matter regions.   

 

About CERN (European Council for Nuclear Research)

  • Founded in: 1954
  • Location: Franco-Swiss border near Geneva.
  • Has 23 Member States.
  • India is an Associate Member at CERN.
  • Mission: To uncover what the universe is made of and how it works.
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