Abstract:
The antiproton Unstable Matter Annihilation (PUMA) experiment aims to use the annihilation of protons on the surface of radioactive nuclei to study nuclear physics phenomena. The experiment, approved in 2021, will collect antiprotons from the ELENA storage ring at CERN’s Antimatter Decelerator before transporting them in a compact particle trap to the ISOLDE radioactive ion beam facility by truck, located a few hundred meters away. At ISOLDE, the particle trap will be connected to the low-energy radioactive ion beamline to receive short-lived rare nuclei. The annihilation between matter and antimatter will occur inside the particle trap, which is surrounded by particle detectors to detect and reconstruct annihilation events. The first deceleration of antiprotons was successfully achieved in 2023, while transport and experiments at ISOLDE are planned for 2025.
In this seminar, the PUMA experiment will be presented with the current status of hardware integration at the AD, as well as the design and building of a new low-energy radioactive ion beamline at ISOLDE with high mass-separation power to provide pure radioactive ion beams at ultra-high vacuum conditions.