Observation of an antimatter hypernucleus

Abstract

Nuclear collisions recreate conditions in the universe microseconds after the Big Bang. Only a very small fraction of the emitted fragments are light nuclei, but these states are of fundamental interest. We report the observation of antihypertritons comprising an antiproton, an antineutron, and an antilambda hyperon produced by colliding gold nuclei at high energy. Our analysis yields 70-£17 antihypertritons (3/ΛH̄) and 157 ± 30 hypertritons (3/ΛH̄ The measured yields of 3/ΛH (3/ΛH) and 3He (3He) are similar, suggesting an equilibrium in coordinate and momentum space populations of up, down, and strange quarks and antiquarks, unlike the pattern observed at lower collision energies. The production and properties of antinuclei, and of nuclei containing strange quarks, have implications spanning nuclear and particle physics, astrophysics, and cosmology.