Elise Wursten

Searching for physics beyond the Standard Model using antiprotons at BASE

Abstract:

The Standard Model of Particle Physics has known many successes, but it is known to be incomplete. For example, it does not provide an explanation for the striking imbalance of matter over antimatter observed in our Universe. In order to investigate the cause of this matter-antimatter asymmetry, a diverse physics program was set up at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator facility to study different aspects of baryonic antimatter. Comparisons of matter and antimatter conjugates provide sensitive probes for possible CPT and Lorentz violation in Nature, testing two cornerstones of the Standard Model as both symmetries are conserved in the model.
One of the experiments at the Antiproton Decelerator is the Baryon Antibaryon Symmetry Experiment (BASE), dedicated to high-precision measurements of the fundamental properties of the proton and the antiproton. Using single-particle multi-pointing-trap techniques, we measure their charge-to-mass ratios, magnetic moments, and lifetimes. All results so far have been compatible with Lorentz and CPT invariance.
In this seminar, I will present the results from our most recent antiproton campaign, involving a measurement of the antiproton-to-proton charge-to-mass ratio with a fractional uncertainty of 16 parts in a trillion, a test of the weak equivalence principle by studying the gravitational coupling to protons and antiprotons, and a search for both scalar and axion-like dark matter.