Trapped Antihydrogen in Its Ground State

Abstract

Antihydrogen atoms (H¯) are confined in an Ioffe trap for 15-1000 s-long enough to ensure that they reach their ground state. Though reproducibility challenges remain in making large numbers of cold antiprotons (p¯) and positrons (e(+)) interact, 5±1 simultaneously confined ground-state atoms are produced and observed on average, substantially more than previously reported. Increases in the number of simultaneously trapped H¯ are critical if laser cooling of trapped H¯ is to be demonstrated and spectroscopic studies at interesting levels of precision are to be carried out.

Radiative and collisional processes in translationally cold samples of hydrogen Rydberg atoms studied in an electrostatic trap

“…their large polarizability α for the sensing of electric fields (α scales as n 7 [2]), the large van der Waals interaction between Rydberg atoms (the C 6 coefficient scales as n 11 ) to generate quantum gates, or their long lifetimes, which is essential for applications in highresolution photoelectron spectroscopy. Other applications are concerned with the formation of Rydberg states by recombination and, in the case of research on antihydrogen, would benefit from a rapid conversion of the Rydberg states formed in the recombination process to the ground state [15]. Transitions stimulated by thermal radiation can modify the desired properties and must be considered in the planning of the experiments, and sometimes also in the analysis of the results.…”

“…The properties of Rydberg states also depend on the orbital and magnetic quantum numbers and m. The selective production of Rydberg states of well-defined quantum numbers enables one to generate atoms or molecules with specific physical properties. This advantage is exploited in an increasing number of scientific applications in several subfields of physics and chemistry, such as quantum optics (see, e.g., [4,5]), quantum-information science (see, e.g., [6,7]), metrology in atoms and molecules (see, e.g., [8][9][10]), high-resolution photoelectron spectroscopy [11], the sensing of electromagnetic fields [12][13][14], and in research on antihydrogen [15][16][17].…”

Experiments with Highly-Ionized Atoms in Unitary Penning Traps

“…For decades, the pursuit of more precise measurement and control to characterize and explore atomic/subatomic systems has motivated the isolation of ions at low energy in a variety of trap types [37,38]. Some of the techniques were honed by generations of experiments studying trapped antiprotons [39], positrons [40] and antihydrogen (see [41] and the references therein). A high-field Penning trap at the TRIUMF TITAN (TRIUMF's Ion Trap for Atomic and Nuclear science) facility in Canada has been used recently to capture short-lived nuclides [42]; examples include experiments at the Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik (MPI-K) to capture highly-charged ions using Penning traps built with meter-long electrode structures and multi-tesla solenoid magnets [43,44].…”

Investigation of two-frequency Paul traps for antihydrogen production

“…The state of the art is dominated by Penning traps, where a constant homogeneous magnetic field and inhomogeneous static electric field allow for confining particles of mass m and charge Q. The ALPHA experiment [5,6] and the ATRAP experiment [7,8] rely on a variation of a Penning trap for initial particle confinement. Penning traps have the advantage of robust trapping for a wide range of charge-to-mass ratios, while also facilitating a high charge density of positrons for efficient three-body recombination.…”