At CERN, we
are dismantling the ATHENA (AntTiHydrogEN Apparatus) experiment, a successful project
which produced the first cold atoms of antihydrogen. ATHENA completed the data
collection in the end of 2004, and some of us former ATHENA members are development
a new experiment, ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus) experiment.
During my
last visit to CERN, I helped disassemble cables. ATHENA was a small scale
experiment, but we still had hundreds of cables running between the
experimental apparatus and from the experimental area to the control room. We
have to clear all the cables, together with other apparatus, in order to make room
for ALPHA. It gave me a bit of sentimental feeling, since one of the first
things I did as a new postdoc in ATHENA in 1999 was to install the cables for
external annihilation detectors. CERN actually has a department to install
cables for the experimenters, but in order to save the money, we did it
ourselves. (Physicists are always cheapter than techinicians!) Back then when we were
building the experiment, we hadn't faintest ideas whether we could actually succeed
in making antihydrogen, let alone be competitive with our competitors, and make the top physics news of Year 2002. It’s a bit pity that we have to dismantle
all this. But we must move on, in order to make progress. I hope that, several
years from now, I can look back the present time with similar good memories.
Comments