Scientists at CERN have successfully transported antimatter by road for the first time, moving 92 antiprotons around a 4-kilometre loop on the laboratory's campus near Geneva, Switzerland. The 20-minute journey on a truck marks a key test for a planned antimatter delivery service across Europe. Researchers say this breakthrough will enable more precise experiments on the elusive particles.
Around 100 antiprotons completed a 20-minute trip on the back of a lorry around CERN's particle physics laboratory campus near Geneva, Switzerland. This demonstration tested a portable container designed for a future antimatter delivery service, allowing antiprotons to be sent on demand to laboratories across Europe for experiments probing their properties and the universe's matter-antimatter imbalance. Christian Smorra at CERN, who leads the effort, said: “I’m very happy that we are now at the stage where it’s possible to [transport antimatter]. It has been a long journey, and it’s a lot of sweat and tears that went into this to make it work.” The Symmetry Tests in Experiments with Portable antiprotons (STEP) project, launched in 2018 by Smorra's team, uses a tank of liquid helium and powerful magnetic fields to contain the antiprotons, slowing them from near-light speeds produced at CERN's Antimatter Decelerator hall, known as the antimatter factory. During the test, 92 antiprotons travelled the 4-kilometre road loop from the factory and back, arriving intact despite the challenges of magnetic interference. Jeffrey Hangst at Aarhus University in Denmark, who runs the nearby ALPHA experiment studying antihydrogen atoms, noted: “This really opens up many more years of precision measurements, because this stops them from being hindered by the noise in the hall.” The team aims to extend the service beyond CERN, but upgrades to the Large Hadron Collider will close much of the facility until the end of 2028.