ELECTROMAGNETIC TRAPS FOR CHARGED AND NEUTRAL PARTICLES

Experimental physics is the art of observing the structure of matter and of detecting the dynamic processes within it. But in order to understand the extremely complicated behaviour of natural processes as an interplay of a few constituents governed by as few as possible fundamental forces and laws, one has to measure the properties of the relevant constituents and their interaction as precisely as possible. And as all processes in nature are interwoven one must separate and study them individually. It is the skill of the experimentalist to carry out clear experiments in order to get answers to his questions undisturbed by undesired effects and it is his ingenuity to improve the art of measuring to ever higher precision. There are many examples in physics showing that higher precision revealed new phenom-ena, inspired new ideas or confirmed or dethroned well established theor-ies. On the other hand new experimental techniques conceived to answer special questions in one field of physics became very fruitful in other fields too, be it in chemistry, biology or engineering. In awarding the Nobel priz