COOL'25 - the 15th International Workshop on Beam Cooling and Related Topics

The CERN Antimatter Factory: Performance and Perspectives

MOA2

27 Oct 2025, 09:30

30m

Wang Center

Invited Oral Presentation COOL'25 Facilities and Programs Session I

Speaker

Laurette Ponce (European Organization for Nuclear Research)

Description

Since the end of the CERN Long Shut down 2 (LS2), the Antimatter Factory consists of the old CERN Antiproton Decelerator (AD) to which has been added the Extra Low ENergy Antiproton (ELENA) decelerator, allowing to serve 100 keV an­tipro­tons up to 4 experiments at each cycle, as com­pared to 5.3 MeV to a single experiment be­fore LS2. The much lower ex­trac­tion en­ergy make it pos­si­ble for the ex­per­i­ments to in­crease the num­ber of trapped an­tipro­tons with up to two or­ders of mag­ni­tude. Since 2021, first year of beam physics in the ELENA era, the performances of both machines are constantly improving, allowing to deliver twice the designed bunch intensity to the users. In this contribution, we will present the current status of the facility and review the main improvements that allowed record beam intensities to be delivered, with emphasis on the optimization of antiproton production and injection, progress made on the stochastic and electron cooling performanceFinally, we will conclude with the consolidation and upgrades planned for the coming years.