S.A. (Steven) Jones, Dr
Research interests
I'm interested in understanding the matter-antimatter asymmetry present in our universe. In collaboration with the ALPHA experiment at CERN, I synthesise and trap atoms of antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen, and measure their spectroscopic and gravitational properties with high precision. My aim is to make direct comparisons between hydrogen and antihydrogen, i.e., with both species measured in the same trap, with the same laser, and at the same time. Such measurements would be insensitive to systematic shifts, and bring about a step change in the precision with which we can test matter-antimatter symmetries. To this end, I am developing an ion trap source of cold atomic hydrogen at the University of Groningen which is compatible with antihydrogen experiments.
I am also interested in developing a spectroscopy experiments using room temperature traps constructed from permanent magnets, with the eventual aim of producing a hydrogen optical clock. Since transitions in hydrogen can be calculated with high accuracy, the clock could be used to redefine the SI second based on other fundamental constants, rather than the measurement of an arbitrary transition.