In March 2026, CERN transported 92 antiprotons inside a special trap mounted on a truck, which made two circuits around the CERN area in Geneva, covering a total distance of 7.5 kilometers in 24 minutes.
No particles were lost during this transfer process, and the results of the experiment were published in the journal Nature.
So why did the need arise to move antimatter to another location? This is because the accuracy of measurements at the "antimatter factory" reached its limits due to magnetic interference from the facility itself. To improve the accuracy of the measurements by a factor of 100, it was necessary to conduct the experiments in a quiet laboratory located elsewhere
After the transfer, the trap remained in the enclosure for 33 days. On the 26th day, a single antiproton escaped the trap and was destroyed after colliding with ordinary matter, releasing energy.
Comparing protons to antiprotons is one of the most promising ways to search for differences between matter and antimatter. If any difference, however minute, can be detected, it could help explain the asymmetry that arose between them immediately after the Big Bang, leading to the dominance of ordinary matter in the universe.
The study's lead author, Marcel Leonhardt, said: "It is particularly important to ensure that there is a super-quality vacuum inside the mobile trap for long-term storage, so that the antiprotons are not lost due to collisions with other particles. For the first time in the world, we achieved a vacuum better than 2.2 × 10⁻¹⁸ millibars throughout the entire storage period, which is much better than our design target of 1 × 10⁻¹⁶ millibars, inside an open trap into which antiprotons can be injected and then extracted."
The next flight, which will take about 10 hours, will be from Geneva to Düsseldorf. Comparing the properties of protons and antiprotons may help in understanding why ordinary matter dominated antimatter in the universe after the Big Bang.
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