Low-energy antimatter experiments at the antiproton decelerator at CERN: Testing CPT invariance and the WEP

The riddle of the baryon asymmetry, i.e. the matter antimatter imbalance in the universe can be addressed by comparing matter particles with their antimatter counterparts. At the antiproton decelerator (AD) at CERN several antimatter experiments investigate whether CPT (charge-parity-time reversal) invariance and the WEP (weak equivalence principle) hold. The systems probed are antihydrogen (H¯), antiprotonic helium and individual antiprotons (p¯). This article is meant to give an overview of the experiments located at the AD, discuss some commonly used experimental techniques and point out what the different experimental approaches entail. The research done on low-energy antimatter systems can be seen as complementary to the high energy research carried out at CERN and elsewhere: It provides bounds on CPT invariance and directly addresses the question of whether the WEP holds for antimatter. It is noted that the AD - at the moment - is the only low-energy antiproton source on earth