New record low temperature for a cloud of antiprotons

A team of international scientists including UBC's Walter Hardy have published research in 2 July Physical Review Letters detailing how they cooled a cloud of antiprotons to 9 kelvin, or an order of magnitude lower than previous work.

The ALPHA team started with about 40,000 electromagnetically trapped anti-protons at a temperature of 1000 kelvin. Then by manipulating the trap, they were able to induce evaporative cooling, where about 90% of the hottest antiprotons escape, leaving the remainder at 9 kelvin. This is analogous to a cup of coffee cooling by steam ( hot water molecules) escape off the top.

One of the goals of this research being conducted at CERN is to create cold anti-hydrogen in order to study its basic nature.

A non-technical overview of this research is available in Physics Review Focus