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Physical Review Letters

Polarization and Trapping of Weakly Bound Atoms in Penning Trap Fields

S. G. Kuzmin, Thomas M. O’Neil

Published Jun 17, 2004• 19 citations
Publisher

Abstract

The ATHENA and ATRAP groups at CERN recently reported the production of weakly bound antihydrogen atoms in a non-neutral positron-antiproton plasma. This Letter derives an equation of motion for weakly bound atoms in the electric and magnetic fields of the plasma and trap. The atoms are polarized by the electric field and can be trapped radially in the edge region of the plasma where the electric field is maximum.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.92.243401

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Over the last decades it has become routine to form beams of positrons and antiprotons and to use them to produce trapped samples of both species for a variety of purposes. Positrons can be captured efficiently, for instance using a buffer-gas system, and in such quantities to form dense, single component plasmas useful for antihydrogen formation. The latter is possible using developments of techniques for dynamically capturing and then cooling antiprotons ejected from the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN. The antiprotons can then be manipulated by cloud compression and evaporative cooling to form tailored plasmas. We will review recent advances that have allowed antihydrogen atoms to be confined for the first time in a shallow magnetic minimum neutral atom trap superimposed upon the region in which the antiparticles are held and mixed. A new mixing technique has been developed to help achieve this using autoresonant excitation of the centreofmass longitudinal motion of an antiproton cloud. This allows efficient antihydrogen formation without imparting excess energy to the antiprotons and helps enhance the probability of trapping the anti-atom. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.

AIP conference proceedings•Jan 1, 2012•0 citations
The ATHENA and ATRAP groups at CERN recently reported the production of weakly bound antihydrogen atoms in a non-neutral positron-antiproton plasma. This Letter derives an equation of motion for weakly bound atoms in the electric and magnetic fields of the plasma and trap. The atoms are polarized by the electric field and can be trapped radially in the edge region of the plasma where the electric field is maximum.
The ApparaTus for High precision Experiment on Neutral Antimatter and antihydrogen TRAP collaborations have produced antihydrogen atoms by recombination in a cryogenic antiproton-positron plasma. This paper discusses the motion of the weakly bound atoms in the electric and magnetic field of the plasma and trap. The effective electric field in the moving frame of the atom polarizes the atom, and then gradients in the field exert a force on the atom. An approximate equation of motion for the atom center of mass is obtained by averaging over the rapid internal dynamics of the atom. The only remnant of the atom internal dynamics that enters this equation is the polarizability for the atom. This coefficient is evaluated for the weakly bound and strongly magnetized (guiding center drift) atoms understood to be produced in the antihydrogen experiments. Application of the approximate equation of motion shows that the atoms can be trapped radially in the large space charge field near the edge of the positron column. Also, an example is presented for which there is full three-dimensional trapping, not just radial trapping. Even untrapped atoms follow curved trajectories, and such trajectories are discussed for the important class of atoms that reach a field ionization diagnostic. Finally, the critical field for ionization is determined as an upper bound on the range of applicability of the theory.
The ApparaTus for High precision Experiment on Neutral Antimatter and antihydrogen TRAP collaborations have produced antihydrogen atoms by recombination in a cryogenic antiproton-positron plasma. This paper discusses the motion of the weakly bound atoms in the electric and magnetic field of the plasma and trap. The effective electric field in the moving frame of the atom polarizes the atom, and then gradients in the field exert a force on the atom. An approximate equation of motion for the atom center of mass is obtained by averaging over the rapid internal dynamics of the atom. The only remnant of the atom internal dynamics that enters this equation is the polarizability for the atom. This coefficient is evaluated for the weakly bound and strongly magnetized (guiding center drift) atoms understood to be produced in the antihydrogen experiments. Application of the approximate equation of motion shows that the atoms can be trapped radially in the large space charge field near the edge of the positron column. Also, an example is presented for which there is full three-dimensional trapping, not just radial trapping. Even untrapped atoms follow curved trajectories, and such trajectories are discussed for the important class of atoms that reach a field ionization diagnostic. Finally, the critical field for ionization is determined as an upper bound on the range of applicability of the theory.
Numerous antihydrogen atoms are created at CERN, by ATRAP and ATHENA experiments, by bringing together positrons and antiprotons in a magnetic Penning trap. Most of these atoms are created in exotic, highly excited states, such that the magnetic forces on positrons are greater than the Coulomb attraction of antiprotons. This paper presents an overview of the recent progress made toward theoretical understanding of the complicated dynamics which leads to the formation and detection of antihydrogen atoms. There is no formal difference between the plasmas described here and normal, electron‐proton, matter plasmas, except the reversed sign of electrical charges. The next generation of experiments need to bring the antihydrogen atoms to the ground state and to cool them to sub‐milliKelvin temperature. Only then, high resolution spectroscopy can expose differences between matter and antimatter due to CPT violations. Suggestions are made for possible pathways toward this goal.
Detailed simulations of antihydrogen formation have been performed under the conditions of the ATHENA experiment, using several densities of the positron plasma in the range n e = 5 × 10 13 m −3 to 10 15 m −3 . The simulations include only collisional effects, typically resulting in the formation of weakly bound antihydrogen via the three-body process, . (Radiative processes, which are much slower than collisional effects, are neglected.) The properties of these weakly bound anti-atoms are affected not only by further collisions in the plasma but also by the inherent electric fields. The role of field ionization in influencing the distribution of binding energies of the antihydrogen is clarified and the mechanism for this process in the strong B -field nested Penning trap used in the experiment is elucidated. The fate of antihydrogen is explained and the properties of the population detected after having reached the wall of the Penning trap electrodes, as well as those field ionized, are recorded. We find that the yield of detected antihydrogen varies with positron density roughly as n 1.7 e , rather than the n 2 e expected from the underlying formation process. As n e is increased, antihydrogen formation is sufficiently rapid that epithermal effects begin to play an important role. In general, the simulated timescales for antihydrogen formation are much shorter than those found from the experiment.
Only our ATRAP Collaboration is yet able to accumulate and store 4.2 K antiprotons and positrons. The antiprotons come initially from the new Antiproton Decelerator facility at CERN. Good control of such cold antimatter plasmas is key to aspirations to produce and study antihydrogen atoms that are cold enough to confine by their magnetic moments. In the closest approach to cold antihydrogen realized to date, the cold positrons have been used to cool antiprotons, the first time that positron cooling has ever been observed. The Penning-loffe trap, one possibility for simultaneously confining antihydrogen and the cold ingredients from which it is formed, is introduced and discussed.
Over the last decades it has become routine to form beams of positrons and antiprotons and to use them to produce trapped samples of both species for a variety of purposes. Positrons can be captured efficiently, for instance using a buffer-gas system, and in such quantities to form dense, single component plasmas useful for antihydrogen formation. The latter is possible using developments of techniques for dynamically capturing and then cooling antiprotons ejected from the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN. The antiprotons can then be manipulated by cloud compression and evaporative cooling to form tailored plasmas. We will review recent advances that have allowed antihydrogen atoms to be confined for the first time in a shallow magnetic minimum neutral atom trap superimposed upon the region in which the antiparticles are held and mixed. A new mixing technique has been developed to help achieve this using autoresonant excitation of the centreofmass longitudinal motion of an antiproton cloud. This allows efficient antihydrogen formation without imparting excess energy to the antiprotons and helps enhance the probability of trapping the anti-atom. © 2012 American Institute of Physics.