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Researchers At CERN Transport Antiprotons By Truck In World-First Experiment (physicsworld.com) 69

Posted by BeauHD from the one-step-closer dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Physics World: Researchers at the CERN particle-physics lab have successfully transported antiprotons in a lorry across the lab's main site. The feat, the first of its kind, follows a similar test with protons in 2024. CERN says the achievement is "a huge leap" towards being able to transport antimatter between labs across Europe. [...] To do so, in 2020 the BASE team began developing a device, known as BASE-STEP (for Baryon-Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment-Symmetry Tests in Experiments with Portable Antiprotons), to store and transport antiprotons. It works by trapping particles in a Penning trap composed of gold-plated cylindrical electrode stacks made from oxygen-free copper that is surrounded by a superconducting magnet bore operated at cryogenic temperatures.

The device, which also contains a carbon-steel vacuum chamber to shield the particles from stray magnetic fields, is then mounted on an aluminium frame. This allows it to be transported using standard forklifts and cranes and withstand the bumps and vibrations of transport. In 2024, BASE researchers used the device to transport a cloud of about 105 trapped protons across CERN's Meyrin campus for four hours. After that feat, the researchers began to adjust BASE-STEP to handle antiprotons and yesterday the team successfully transported a trap containing a cloud of 92 antiprotons around the campus for 30 minutes, traveling up to 42 km/h.

With further improvements and tests, the team now hope to transport the antiprotons further afield. The first destination on the team's list is the Heinrich Heine University (HHU) in Dusseldorf, Germany, which would take about eight hours. "This means we'd have to keep the trap's superconducting magnet at a temperature below 8.2 K for that long," says BASE-STEP's leader Christian Smorra. "So, in addition to the liquid helium , we'd need to have a generator to power a cryocooler on the truck. We are currently investigating this possibility." If possible to transport to HHU, physicists would then use the particles to search for charge-parity-time violations in protons and antiprotons with a precision at least 100 times higher than currently possible at CERN.
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Researchers At CERN Transport Antiprotons By Truck In World-First Experiment More

Researchers At CERN Transport Antiprotons By Truck In World-First Experiment

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  • Feels like this is the setup for a joke that won't pay off for twenty-five years, and the punchline will wipe one-and-a-half European cities off the map.

  • What does a failed test look like? If containment fails and 92 protons interact with matter, I would imagine you wind up with a flash of energy as the antiprotons and their proton cousins mutually destruct. It's been a fair amount of time (and bottles of wine) since my last physics class. How much energy are we talking about? I am guessing it's not a significant energy release in terms of there being any real risk to anyone/anything nearby.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by sinij ( 911942 )
      Yes, flash of radiation according to e=mc^2.

      • Re: Failed test? (Score:5, Informative)

        by LindleyF ( 9395567 ) on Thursday March 26, 2026 @11:13AM (#66063076)
        Around 2e-8 Joules.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by hwstar ( 35834 )

          You would see nothing. 92 pairs is an extremely small number of particles. Even if a small fraction of the energy were converted into visible light (e.g., through secondary interactions with surrounding matter), the total number of visible photons produced would be far below the threshold required for the human eye to perceive a flash.

          • Ah...I figured it was less Star Trek antimatter-containment-pod and more like counting how many fruit flies survived shipment.

    • Aaaflac! (Score:4, Funny)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Thursday March 26, 2026 @11:17AM (#66063088) Journal

      "Sorry, but we don't have an insurance code to cover 'sub-atomic vaporization chain-reaction'."

    • One proton vs Antiproton explosion releases 1,877 MeV (mega-electronvolts). All the antimatter they transfered would not give off 200,000 MeV

      1 foot pound of energy contains more than 8 trillion MeV

      So basically, it could be happening inside your body and you would never notice it.

      • It is happening inside my body, and I definitely notice it.

        • Are you outside? Then what you are noticing is more likely the impact of radiation from a large Fusion explosion occuring less than 9 light minutes from you.

    • How much energy are we talking about?

      I don't know if it's still strictly true, but they used to say that all of the antimatter that has ever been produced by humans has had enough combined energy to warm up a cup of coffee.

  • Soon on Amazon (Score:3)

    by sTERNKERN ( 1290626 ) on Thursday March 26, 2026 @11:43AM (#66063124)
    I wonder if it is available with overnight shipping.

  • Next (Score:5, Insightful)

    by whitroth ( 9367 ) <<su.tnec-5> <ta> <htortihw>> on Thursday March 26, 2026 @11:44AM (#66063126) Homepage

    Can we create some science-based anti-morons, and transport them to DC?

    • Several would have to be created, there are not currently enough in existence. I was trying to think up a zinger about Avogadro's number and taking out the foreign 'moles' but I've done enough thinking for the day.
    • "DC" Yeah, all those idiots in "Washington" are equally stupid about science, from Trump & RFKJ ending research funding for a universal coronavirus vaccine to the people successfully working on one! Fuck 'em all, amiright?!?

    • You might be disappointed in which morons get annihilated.

  • This made me realize that the movie really glossed over the development and testing of the capture and containment system for the ghosts.

    Amazing that we can create such particles.

  • It works by trapping particles in a Penning trap composed of gold-plated cylindrical electrode stacks made from oxygen-free copper that is surrounded by a superconducting magnet bore operated at cryogenic temperatures.

    What does that even MEAN, lol?
    Copper is a chemical element, atomic number 29 on the periodic table.
    Oxygen is also a chemical element, atomic number 8 on the periodic table.

    i.e, e,g., therefore, & also: all copper is "oxygen-free." If the article got something so simple as THIS completely wrong, one can easily presume that the REST of the article is incorrect gibberish.

    "oXyGEn-fREE cOppER", lmao

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward
      When copper is exposed to oxygen, it forms a thin layer of copper oxide on the surface (which eventually causes it to turn green). If I had to take a random guess, I'd speculate that "oxygen-free" means that it's been protected from any oxygen exposure in order to prevent such an oxide layer from forming and reducing its ability to conduct electricity.

    • Re:All copper is "oxygen-free" (Score:5, Informative)

      by stabiesoft ( 733417 ) on Thursday March 26, 2026 @12:12PM (#66063188) Homepage
      Oxygen free copper has been a thing for quite awhile. I've known about it for at least 20 years. Here is one definition, "Copper is widely used where high electrical or thermal conductivity is required. Pure copper is defined as having a minimum copper content of 99.3%. Copper with oxygen content below 10 ppm is called ‘oxygen-free.’
      • At  high temps  equilibrium concentration of oxygen in  solid copper is O(10^-4) % by weight. If BOTE serves well, then  "Oxygen free" would be 100x less than that.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dacut ( 243842 )
        It's a big thing in the audiophile community. I can only imagine they'll now be seeking to add gold-plated cylindrical electrode stacks and superconducting magnet bores to their setups now...
    • It has to do with the refining and production process. Sure all copper is pure, but the reality is that extraction and production into a usable object without introducing unwanted contaminants or trapping air within the produced object is not a simple task. Some contamination is not even a problem for most uses of copper, but not here.

      - use brain?

    • Any copper that is exposed to oxygen (even briefly) will oxidize. Presumably TFA is talking about ultra-pure copper that has not been contaminated by exposure to air.

    • Re:All copper is "oxygen-free" (Score:5, Informative)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Thursday March 26, 2026 @12:18PM (#66063220)

      Have you ever seen a shiny new penny versus an old tarnished one? Or the Statue of Liberty? Or an old building with one of those weird green roofs?

      They're all copper, with varying amounts of oxygen. Oxygen free copper is expensive copper that's specially made to get rid of as much of the oxygen as possible: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      If the article got something so simple as THIS completely wrong, one can easily presume that the REST of the article is incorrect gibberish.

      "oXyGEn-fREE cOppER", lmao

      Indeed.

      • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

        by apparently ( 756613 )
        This post has nothing to do with the Statue of Liberty, lol -- CERN is in Europe, ffs!

        • Re: (Score:1)

          by Anonymous Coward

          TBF she was born in France even she lives in NYC now

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          Yes? [google.com]

          As for the one in New York, I'll give you three guesses where La Liberté éclairant le monde was made.

        • This post has nothing to do with the Statue of Liberty, lol -- CERN is in Europe, ffs!

          Copper oxidizes on both continents. All around the world, in fact. And the Statue of Liberty has an outer layer of (oxidized) copper. That's why she's green.

          [I don't see an /s tag, though you have been modded Funny. I plead Poe's law.]

    • You win this year's Nobel Prize for pedantry.

      So according to you, I can't call the water pipes in my house "copper", since 0.05% phosphorus was added to the material to accomodate brazing.

      • The only thing stopping you from calling the water pipes in your house "copper-phosphorus pipes" is laziness and poor attention to detail.

        By your awesome logic, instead of saying "pass the salt" at the dinner table, it's better to take the lazy route and say "Can you please pass the chloride?" because for some reason it doesn't matter that salt is sodium chloride.

        • Iâ(TM)m sorry, "water pipes"? What about all the dissolved minerals and gasses in that water? Fix your poor attention to detail, dude.

          • Iâ(TM)m sorry, "water pipes"? What about all the dissolved minerals and gasses in that water? Fix your poor attention to detail, dude.

            You don't now what you're talking about -- ultrapure water [wikipedia.org] doesn't have "dissolved minerals and gasses" in it; that's literally the point of it, lol

        • The only thing stopping you from calling the water pipes in your house "copper-phosphorus pipes" is laziness and poor attention to detail.

          Have you ever heard a single person, including plumbing professionals, call them "copper-phosphorus pipes"?

          No. Because that's not how the English language works. You're the one who is too lazy and ignorant to figure out how people actually communicate in society.

          Hint: The systematization your mind wants to apply to everything is not absolute. You need to figure out when to relax the formal logic rules when they start to result in absurd outcomes.

          • Have you ever heard a single person, including plumbing professionals, call them "copper-phosphorus pipes"?

            Yes, just this morning, actually.

            No. Because that's not how the English language works. You're the one who is too lazy and ignorant to figure out how people actually communicate in society.

            Wait. You're asking ME a question and instead of letting ME answer the question that YOU ASKED ME, you're answering it YOURSELF, deciding that the answer is "No", and then giving yourself a big pat on the back? lol. wtf is THAT sad shit about? Are you serious?

            Hint: The systematization your mind wants to apply to everything is not absolute. You need to figure out when to relax the formal logic rules when they start to result in absurd outcomes.

            Nah, "relaxing the formal logic rules" seems like a good recipe for asking a question of someone and then answering it -- incorrectly -- yourself, quod erat demonstrandum

        • The only thing stopping you from calling the water pipes in your house "copper-phosphorus pipes" is laziness and poor attention to detail.

          A truly non-lazy person, then, would have to conduct a detailed spectrographic assay of all of the pipes (or at least sufficient samples from each lot) to accurately determine the precise composition of each, because all of them contain impurities and aren't merely copper and phosphorous.

          In general, getting a truly pure sample of almost any element is incredibly-hard, and outside of laboratories (and even in laboratories, most of the time) it just doesn't matter. In the case of transporting anti-protons,

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rossdee ( 243626 )

      What about the ones in New Scotland Yard?

    • Why do I still read slashdot? People here used to actually know things.

      In fact, even OFC (oxygen free copper) or the more commonly used OFHC (oxygen free high conductivity) have oxygen in them. The purest I've ever heard of has an oxygen concentration of around 0.1 ppm. There is no copper in solid form you can get on earth that is oxygen free. The material they used in their Penning trap just has a lot less oxygen than the copper used for more mundane things like wiring. OFHC has been used industriall

      • There is no copper in solid form you can get on earth that is oxygen free.

        I love that it didn't occur to you that just because YOU can't source any, then it means that no one "on earth" can get any, lol.
        Who's your copper guy? Maybe contract with a new one if yours can't get you "the good stuff"

  • anti-protons have a negative electric charge, like electrons, and I can assure you that I also transport a bunch of electrons daily

  • ...I would have used an anti-truck.

  • Mixed news for Star Trek fans (Score:3)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Thursday March 26, 2026 @12:50PM (#66063306)
    Mixed news for Star Trek fans:

    Good news:
      - We have antimatter under control.

    Bad news:
      - Antimatter lets us travel at truck speed, not FTL speed.
  • .. was it an antarctic? Oh dear, my jokes are really getting bad. At least I baryon trying.

  • I'm too uneducated. If 92 antiprotons end up annihilating themselves in collisions with matter, how much energy is released? Is it "did you hear that?" or, "I found the driver's femur!"

    And would Uber apply a surcharge?

    • I asked Copilot this question. It came up with some formulas to calculate the number of joules (3×10^8 joules), and concluded that the explosion would be about 30 million times less energy released, than dropping a paper clip.

  • They aren't meant to be jailed! Protons like to roam the universe, set them free you bastards!!!

    • Whatever you do, don't drop that flask! Those imprisoned protons are liable to do just about anything, once they get loose!

  • Disappointed. (Score:3)

    by newbie_fantod ( 514871 ) on Thursday March 26, 2026 @03:15PM (#66063522)

    I expected the transport to look something more like the Ghost Buster's ambulance

  • Hmm. think that's been done already, even before amazon prime. To trap your protons, it helps to keep the back door closed ;)
  • What particularly amused me about this experiment is that they transported protons first. I have this picture of them completing this "dry-run" and deciding to try the anti-protons, which involves them swapping some wires over, or taking some component out and flipping it over before they reinsert it.

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