Observations of cold antihydrogen

J. N. Tan, N. S. Bowden, G. Gabrielse*, P. Oxley, A. Speck, C. H. Storry, M. Wessels, D. Grzonka, W. Oelert, G. Schepers, T. Sefzick, J. Walz, H. Pittner, T. W. Hänsch, E. A. Hessels

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalConference articlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

ATRAP's e+ cooling of p in a nested Penning trap has led to reports of cold H produced during such cooling by the ATHENA and ATRAP collaborations. To observe H, ATHENA uses coincident annihilation detection and ATRAP uses field ionization followed by p storage. Advantages of ATRAP's field ionization method include the complete absence of any background events, and the first way to measure which H states are produced. ATRAP enhances the H production rate by driving many cycles of e+ cooling in the nested trap, with more H counted in an hour than the sum of all the other antimatter atoms ever reported. The number of H counted per incident high energy p is also higher than ever observed. The first measured distribution of H states is made using a pre-ionizing electric field between separated production and detection regions. The high rate and the high Rydberg states suggest that the H is formed via three-body recombination, as expected.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)22-30
Number of pages9
JournalNuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research, Section B: Beam Interactions with Materials and Atoms
Volume214
Issue numberSUPPL.
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 2004
EventLow Energy Antiproton Physics (LEAP'03) - Jamashita-park, Japan
Duration: Mar 3 2003Mar 7 2003

Funding

Thanks to CERN, its PS Division and the AD team for delivering 5.3 MeV antiprotons. ATRAP is supported by the NSF, AFOSR, the ONR of the US, the BMBF, MPG and FZ-J of Germany, and the NSERC, CRC and PREA of Canada.

Keywords

  • Antihydrogen
  • Field ionization
  • Nested Penning trap
  • Positron cooling
  • Recombination in cold plasma
  • Rydberg atom

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Nuclear and High Energy Physics
  • Instrumentation

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