Quantum chemistry of antimatter

Charles Q. Choi

Michele Burrello

Elliott Kasoar, Martin Plummer, Lara Van Lydon +1 more

Antihydrogen atoms, H― , are now routinely created and can be stored for long enough to allow comparison with ordinary matter. A major goal of these efforts is to test potential physics beyond the Standard Model. This will require further developments in the experiments including the accumulation of more antihydrogen atoms and their storage over longer times. The latter is limited by the unavoidable presence of normal hydrogen molecules. Interactions of H― with H2 lead to the destruction of the hard-won antimatter. Little is known about these interactions but quantitative information will be crucial in guiding experimental developments. Physically realistic modelling of rearrangement scattering of “heavy” antimatter particles (antiprotons, p― , and antihydrogen atoms) by normal matter molecules, such as H2 + H―→ Pn + Ps + H (where Pn represents protonium and Ps positronium), requires the development of new theoretical and computational methodologies. R-matrix theory offers a strong prospect for tackling such problems having proved itself in atomic, molecular and optical physics. It divides the problem into a computationally demanding but energy-independent inner region and simpler energy-dependent outer regions. We propose to adapt the new RmatReact ultracold chemistry approach for the more complex molecular matter-antimatter problems. Here, developments required for the inner region, the boundary and outer regions are outlined. We also report some preliminary bound-state calculations on the {p,p, p― } system and a study of the required mixed coordinate systems for the general effective 3-body case and their transformations at the R-matrix boundary surfaces.

Mohamed Assaad Abdel-Raouf

Abstract The main objective of the present paper is to discuss the consequences of matter-antimatter interaction at low energy. The production of large number of cooled antimatter in laboratory and the formation of exotic atoms composed of particles and antiparticles are reviewed. Particularly, the quantum mechanical treatment of Four-Body exotic molecules is shortly discussed. The main goal of the paper is to shed light on possible novel discoveries and applications based on the coexistence of matter and antimatter.

Jean‐Paul Malrieu, Jean Pierre Daudey

A. Y. Klimenko

This work investigates the influence of directional properties of decoherence on kinetics rate equations. The physical reality is understood as a chain of unitary and decoherence events. The former are quantum-deterministic, while the latter introduce uncertainty and increase entropy. For interactions of matter and antimatter, two approaches are considered: symmetric decoherence, which corresponds to conventional symmetric (CP-invariant) thermodynamics, and antisymmetric decoherence, which corresponds to antisymmetric (CPT-invariant) thermodynamics. Radiation, in its interactions with matter and antimatter, is shown to be decoherence-neutral. The symmetric and antisymmetric assumptions result in different interactions of radiation with matter and antimatter. The theoretical predictions for these differences are testable by comparing absorption (emission) of light by thermodynamic systems made of matter and antimatter. Canonical typicality for quantum mixtures is briefly discussed in Appendix A.