{"id":34849,"date":"2026-09-17T08:02:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T06:02:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prisma.uni-mainz.de\/?p=34849"},"modified":"2026-09-17T08:58:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T06:58:14","slug":"antiproton-storage-and-transport-records-achieved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prisma.uni-mainz.de\/en\/2026\/09\/17\/antiproton-storage-and-transport-records-achieved\/","title":{"rendered":"Antiproton storage and transport records achieved"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

17.09.2026<\/p>\n\n\n<\/jgu-base-heading>\n\n\n\n

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Antiprotons stored in a mobile transport container for over a month for the first time \/ Research group at Mainz University contributes to a paper published in Nature<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

PRESS RELEASE OF THE BASE COLLABORATION<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Comparing protons \u2013 the positively charged components of an atomic nucleus \u2013 with antiprotons \u2013 their antimatter counterparts \u2013 is one of the most promising methods for seeking differences between matter and antimatter. Any identified difference in their mass or magnetic moment could point to the potential origin of the matter-antimatter asymmetry that can be observed in the cosmos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So-called ultra-high vacuum Penning traps enable such high-precision measurements of the protons and antiprotons confined in them. The BASE (Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment) research collaboration designed and now operates a trap of this kind \u2013 known as BASE-STEP \u2013 at CERN, or more precisely the “Antimatter Factory” (AMF) there. The AMF is the only facility worldwide where low-energy antiprotons can be produced, stored and studied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Stefan Ulmer, holder of the Chair of Quantum Technologies and Fundamental Symmetries at HHU, is the founder and spokesperson of BASE, and co-author of the new study in Nature<\/em>: “In recent years, we have already achieved precision measurements of the intrinsic magnetic moment of both types of particles with an accuracy of 0.3 ppb for protons and 1.6 ppb for antiprotons.” The abbreviation ppb stands for parts per billion and equates to 1×10-9<\/sup>. To date, however, comparisons of the obtained data on protons and antiprotons have not yet identified any difference within the achievable measurement accuracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr Christian Smorra, BASE-STEP principal investigator and corresponding author of the study: “We cannot improve the level of measurement accuracy any further at the AMF as facility operation causes magnetic-field fluctuations, which affect our measuring equipment. We can only find better conditions outside CERN. And so the idea of the mobile open BASE-STEP trap was born: We will transport the antiprotons to another location with a high-precision laboratory in order to achieve at least 100-fold improvement in precision.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the success of the proton transport in October 2024, the BASE team then succeeded in using the same trap to transport antiprotons in March 2026. A total of 92 of these particles were extracted from the AMF and stored in BASE-STEP. The trap was then loaded onto a truck and driven around the CERN site for half an hour, covering a distance of about eight kilometers. The team then also succeeded in unloading the trap again without losing even one of the stored antiprotons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marcel Leonhardt, doctoral researcher in physics at HHU and lead author of the study: “We then continued to observe the antiprotons. We were able to store and manipulate them in a controlled manner for more than a month in total.” He also highlights a special achievement: “It is particularly important to realize an extremely good vacuum in a mobile trap for long-term storage to ensure that the antiprotons are not lost through collisions with other particles. In a world first for an open trap system into which antiprotons can be injected and subsequently extracted again, we achieved a vacuum of better than 2.2×10-18<\/sup> mbar throughout the storage period \u2013 a substantially better figure than our own design target of 1×10-16<\/sup> mbar.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One destination for the stored antiprotons is the high-precision laboratory currently being established at HHU by Ulmer\u2019s team to enable comparison measurements of protons and antiprotons. “We completed a successful dress rehearsal with the transport in March and were able to demonstrate that our idea works. Our next target is to make the trap sufficiently autonomous to allow a ten-hour transport from Geneva to D\u00fcsseldorf,” states Dr Smorra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Professor Ulmer on the background to the research: “Our goal is to answer one of the most fundamental questions in physics: Why does a universe filled with matter exist? If an asymmetry between matter and antimatter were to exist, then a minute amount more matter than antimatter may have been produced during the Big Bang, meaning that a net excess of matter remained while the antimatter annihilated in full.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A promising future for research groups in Mainz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This milestone marks the next stage in a development that began in Mainz ten years ago. Such a transport trap for investigating antiprotons was the research topic of Dr. Christian Smorra during his time at JGU, for which he received an ERC Starting Grant. Currently the research group of Professor Jochen Walz at JGU works on the further development of the precision penning trap experiment as part of the BASE collaboration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researchers at the PRISMA++<\/sup> Cluster of Excellence are addressing the fundamental question of the asymmetry between matter and antimatter. One example is the Antimatter on a Chip (AMOC) project, which is devoted to developing technology for storing and manipulating antimatter in the laboratory. The main objective of the project is to make what are known as “tabletop experiments” possible using antimatter, which could scale up antimatter research around the globe. Dr. Hendrik Bekker, co-leader of the AMOC project, congratulates the BASE team on this milestone and welcomes the prospect that university laboratories might gain access to antiprotons in the future. He added: “This allows small, flexible teams like ours to develop new techniques that complement the work at CERN.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

BASE collaboration and BASE-STEP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Established in 2012 and based at the Antimatter Factory (AMF) at CERN, research institutes in Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and Switzerland are involved in the BASE collaboration, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n