Experimental Physics: Fully Funded, 3.5-year PhD Studentship in Antihydrogen Physics with the ALPHA Experiment at CERN

This project aims to use laser-cooled beryllium ions to improve antihydrogen experiments in the ALPHA apparatus at CERN. The ALPHA collaboration is world-leading in studies of antihydrogen as a probe of matter and antimatter symmetry. Antihydrogen is made by merging cold antiprotons and positrons in a Penning-Malmberg trap. The antihydrogen atoms are trapped in a magnetic minimum trap where they can be exposed to both microwave and laser fields to probe their energy structure, or to carefully tailored magnetic fields to reveal their behaviour due to gravity. Laser-cooled beryllium ions trapped in the ALPHA apparatus have become crucial to antihydrogen physics. The ions are used to sympathetically cool positrons for antihydrogen production and thereby make colder antihydrogen, thus increasing the trapping rate and improving the statistics and capabilities of the experiment. We can also use cold beryllium ions as an absolute in-situ AC and DC magnetometer to increase our knowledge of the magnetic trapping fields and to probe the strength of the microwave fields used for inducing hyperfine transitions. The successful candidate will focus on one or more of the above aspects and take them to their full potential. This studentship is based at the ALPHA experiment at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. 

The ALPHA collaboration consists of around 60 researchers with around 20 permanently based at CERN, where the experiment is located. The student will join this international team of experts as part of the substantial Swansea team at CERN. 

Funding duration – 3.5 years

Funding Comment: Covers full tuition, £20,780 stipend (2025/26), plus up to £1,000 yearly for research costs.

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