Pulsed production of antihydrogen and other antiprotonic systems for precision tests of fundamental symmetries

by Prof. Michael Doser (Oxford University)

Tuesday 27 Oct 2026, 10:00 → 11:00 Asia/Shanghai

Tsung-Dao Lee Institute/N6F-N600 - Lecture Room (Tsung-Dao Lee Institute)

Abstract：

The production of cold antihydrogen atoms at CERN's Antiproton Decelerator (AD) has opened up the possibility to perform direct measurements of the Earth's gravitational acceleration on antimatter bodies. This is the main goal of the AEgIS collaboration: to measure the value of g using a pulsed source of cold horizontally travelling antihydrogen via a moiré deflectometer/Talbot-Lau interferometer. The first milestone of pulsed production of antihydrogen using a resonant charge-exchange reaction between cold trapped antiprotons and Rydberg positronium (or Ps, the atomic bound state of a positron and an electron) atoms, and the techniques it relies on, will be presented, with a view to the first gravitational experiments using a pulsed beam of antihydrogen in the near future. Further physics directions in AEgIS relying on similar pulsed interactions in positronium or between antiprotons and Rydberg atoms and molecules will also be touched upon, as they open up unexplored venues in nuclear physics, searches for dark matter, production of low energy antineutrons and novel precision tests of fundamental symmetries, inter alia in Rydberg hydrogen-like Highly Charged Ions.

Biography：

Employment:

1988-1991 Research Assistant at KEK, Japan

1991-1993 Research Fellow at CERN

1993-2025 Staff position as Research Physicist at CERN; emeritus since 2025

2025-2027 affiliated researcher, MIT

2026-2029 visiting professor, Oxford University, UK

Activities:

2010-2022 Co-founder and spokesperson for the AEgIS experiment

2023- Co-founder and spokesperson of the DRD5 collaboration (120 institutes worldwide) that initiates and coordinates R&D on quantum sensors for particle physics

Editor of Physics Letters B (since 2002), Rev. of Part. Prop., and of Journ. Adv. Instr. in Science

Member of the Bergen Quantum Hub and co-chair of the DESY Center for Quantum Technology and Applications (CQTA) advisory boards

Main areas of research and most important achievements:

My research focuses on antimatter, either as tool (to investigate e.g. the strong interaction) or as a subject of study (to test fundamental symmetries). Until 2000, my focus was on particle physics, specifically meson spectroscopy, where I was deeply involved in the Crystal Barrel experiment which resulted in one of the best candidates for a so-called ‘glueball’, a hypothetical bound state of only gluons.

Since 2000, my interests shifted towards plasma physics, atomic physics and most crucially, the formation and study of antiprotonic atoms. Starting from the Athena experiment, the first to form antihydrogen atoms, I co-founded (in 2010) and led (until 2022) the AEgIS experiment which established the first pulsed formation of antihydrogen atoms in 2018, laying the groundwork for pulsed investigations of antihydrogen (tests of the weak equivalence principle), positronium (precision spectroscopy, tests of QED and inertial sensing), and of antiprotonic atoms and molecules. The later - once produced in such a pulsed manner within Penning traps - provide access to a wide range of physics: precision spectroscopy (tests of QED, searches for BSM interactions), nuclear physics in traps, Highly Charged Ions’s and novel searches for dark matter candidates. I continue to be highly active and a driver in this field. While a number of physics results stemming from this work have been published, I consider that many of the conceptual and technical developments that these required, and that have also been published, are equally important achievements. From 2002-2008, I was also involved in the ACE experiment, whose goal it was to investigate the feasibility and potential benefits of using antiprotons for radiotherapy and in 2026, have initiated a further biology research program based on low energy protons and antiprotons.

Since 2020, I have led efforts to apply quantum sensing techniques to particle physics, with a particular focus on their use in both low- and high-energy physics experiments and am now leading a global effort on the concomitant quantum sensor R&D, having built an international collaboration of 120 institutes.

Alternative online link:https://meeting.tencent.com/dm/daYyjG2dt9mM

ID: 206871424