A very cool experiment from Swansea University in south-west Wales, UK:
First observation of the hyperfine splitting in Antihydrogen
Swansea University scientists working at CERN have again made a landmark finding, taking them one step closer to answering the question of why matter exists and illuminating the mysteries of the Big Bang and the birth of the Universe.
In their paper published in Nature the physicists from the University’s College of Science, working with an international collaborative team at CERN, describe the first observation of spectral line shapes in antihydrogen, the antimatter equivalent of hydrogen.
Professor Mike Charlton said: “The existence of antimatter is well established in physics, and it is buried deep in the heart of some of the most successful theories ever developed. But we have yet to answer a central question of why didn’t matter and antimatter, which it is believed were created in equal amounts when the Big Bang started the Universe, mutually self-annihilate?
“We also have yet to address why there is any matter left in the Universe at all. This conundrum is one of the central open questions in fundamental science, and one way to search for the answer is to bring the power of precision atomic physics to bear upon antimatter.”
Very clever idea - we know the properties of hydrogen very well - the hyperfine splitting has been determined to within one part in ten trillion and this transition is at the core of our most precise clocks - the Hydrogen Masers. To measure the same transition in anti-Hydrogen will open a door on its physical properties. It should be identical but who knows...
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