International School on Low Energy Antimatter Physics
The Accelerators Validating Antimatter physics (AVA) project held a week-long international School on ‘Low Energy Antimatter Physics’ at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland between 25th – 29th June 2018. Over 60 participants attended this school, including all AVA Fellows and invited speakers.
The School came at the right time with commissioning of the Extra Low ENergy Antiproton ring (ELENA) on-going at CERN. ELENA will significantly enhance the efficiency of experiments with antihydrogen. The School’s programme included talks by well-known experts from across the AD research community who gave an excellent overview of the state-of-the-art of the field of low energy antimatter physics, from new facilities R&D to experimental and theoretical aspects.
AVA Fellows discussing with Dr Gerard Tranquille, one of the lecturers at the AVA School.
Highlight of this school were talks by Professor Walter Oelert who led the team that created the world’s first antihydrogen atom in 1995 and Professor Steve Myers, who led CERN’s accelerator development for many years and who talked about the many different applications of accelerators.
Another special highlight was the public talk on ‘Physique d’antimatière’ by Canadian astrophysicist and scientific communicator Professor Hubert Reeves. His talk took place in CERN’s Globe of Science and Innovation and all places were filled and many questions were asked after his interesting presentation. It is now available in the French original or with English translation.
Study sessions completed the lectures and allowed participants to form working groups to solve exercises, while they enjoyed the sunshine on the terrace of Restaurant 1 at CERN. There was also a poster session where School participants had the opportunity to present their own research results and discuss them with other researchers.
We would like to cordially thank all lecturers for their contribution. Special thanks go to Javier, Maxine and Michael for their help with the organisation of the School.
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