BASE-STEP: Transporting antiprotons in an open autonomous Penning trap system

by Marcel Leonhardt (Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf (DE)), Christian Smorra (Heinrich Heine University Dusseldorf (DE))

Friday 19 Jun 2026, 11:00 → 12:00 Europe/Zurich

40/S2-B01 - Salle Bohr (CERN)

High-precision measurements on trapped antimatter play a key role in testing fundamental symmetries and the Standard Model of particle physics. Among the most precise results in this field are comparisons of fundamental properties of protons and antiprotons, such as
charge-to-mass ratios and magnetic moments, resulting in tests of CPT invariance.

These measurements are performed by the BASE (Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment) collaboration at CERN, using an advanced multi-Penning trap system located at CERN’s Antimatter Factory. The sensitivity of these measurements has reached 16 ppt for the charge-to-mass ratio and 1.6 ppb for the magnetic moment, respectively. Although we have demonstrated the capability to reach significantly higher precision in principle, magnetic-field fluctuations originating from CERN’s AD and ELENA decelerators currently limit further improvements on practical timescales. To overcome this limitation, we developed the novel, autonomous, open, and transportable Penning-trap system BASE-STEP. Transportable antiproton traps enable a new experimental paradigm in which antiprotons are relocated to magnetically quiet, offline laboratories, as currently under development at Heinrich Heine University (HHU) Düsseldorf and planned at CERN.

In this talk, we report on the first successful road transport of protons and, most recently, antiprotons confined in the BASE-STEP apparatus. We discuss the underlying techniques for non-destructive antiproton detection and transport, as well as the prospects for substantially improved CPT tests at the level of up to two orders of magnitude using offline precision measurements with trapped antiprotons.

Coffee will be served at 10:30

 

 

Recording

Transporting_Antiprotons_DetectorSeminar_Leonhardt.pdf

Transporting_Antiprotons_DetectorSeminar_Leonhardt.pptx