0000000000761724
AUTHOR
Luis A. Orozco
Barkas effect with use of antiprotons and protons.
The difference in the range of protons and antiprotons in matter, an example of the Barkas effect, is observed in a simple time-of-flight apparatus. The ranges of 5.9-MeV antiprotons and protons differ by about 6% in a degrader made predominantly of aluminum.
Thousandfold improvement in the measured antiproton mass
Comparisons of antiproton and proton cyclotron frequencies yield the ratio of inertial masses M(p¯)/M(p)=0.999 999 977 ±0.000 000 042. The fractional uncertainty of 4×10−8 is 1000 times more accurate than previous measurements of this ratio using exotic atoms and is the most precise test of CPT invariance with baryons. Independent comparisons to electrons yield the mass ratios M(p¯)/M(e−)=1836.152 660±0.000 083 and M(p)/M(e−) =1836.152 680±0.000 088. Cryogenic antiprotons (near 4 K) stored in a Penning trap for 2 months establish directly a lifetime greater than 3.4 months.
Cooling and slowing of trapped antiprotons below 100 meV
Electron cooling of trapped antiprotons allows their storage at energies 10 million times lower than is available in any antiproton storage ring. More than 60 000 antiprotons with energies from 0 to 3000 eV are stored in an ion trap from a single pulse of 5.9-MeV antiprotons from LEAR. Trapped antiprotons maintain their initial energy distribution over a storage lifetime exceeding 50 h unless allowed to collide with a cold buffer gas of trapped electrons, where- upon they cool dramatically to 1 eV in tens of seconds. The cooled antiprotons can be stacked into a harmonic potential well suited for long-term storage and precision measurements.