The BASE collaboration has now designed a new device, called BASE-STEP, that could help scientists move antimatter around to other facilities. The key to the system is what’s known as a Penning trap, which uses electric and magnetic fields to suspend antiprotons (the antimatter version of protons) away from the walls of the container. But there are atoms in air too of course, so the trap also stores them in a vacuum. BASE-STEP would be made with two Penning traps – one to receive and release antiprotons and a second one that acts as a storage reservoir.
Penning traps are already in use in antimatter facilities, with CERN previously showing they can store antiprotons for over 400 days – a huge improvement over the record of
16 minutes, set in 2011. But the real challenge for the team was to then make these devices portable.