0000000000546835
AUTHOR
L. Haarsma
A single trapped antiproton and antiprotons for antihydrogen production
During the last several years, our TRAP collaboration has pioneered techniques for slowing, trapping, cooling and indefinitely storing antiprotons to energies more than 1010 times lower than previously possible. The radio signal from a single trapped antiproton is now being used for precision measurements. Many cold antiprotons are “stacked” as another important step toward the eventual production of antihydrogen, and positrons have been trapped in vacuum.
Extremely cold antiprotons for antihydrogen production
The possibility to produce, trap and study antihydrogen atoms rests upon the recent availability of extremely cold antiprotons in a Penning trap. Over the last five years, our TRAP Collaboration has slowed, cooled and stored antiprotons at energies 1010 lower than was previously possible. The storage time exceeds 3.4 months despite the extremely low energy, which corresponds to 4.2 K in temperature units. The first example of measurements which become possible with extremely cold antiprotons is a comparison of the antiproton inertial masses which shows they are the same to a fractional accuracy of 4×10−8. (This is 1000 times more accurate than previous comparisons and large additional incre…
First Capture of Antiprotons in an Ion Trap: Progress Toward a Precision Mass Measurement and Antihydrogen
Antiprotons from the Low Energy Antiproton Ring of CERN are slowed from 21 MeV to below 3 keV by being passed through 3 mm of material, mostly Be. While still in flight, the kilo-electron volt antiprotons are captured in a Penning trap created by the sudden application of a 3-kV potential. Antiprotons are held for 100 s and more. Prospects are now excellent for much longer trapping times under better vacuum conditions. This demonstrates the feasibility of a greatly improved measurement of the inertial mass of the antiproton and opens the way to other intriguing experiments. The possibility of producing antihydrogen by merging cold, trapped plasmas of positrons and antiprotons is discussed.