Behaviour and spectroscopy of (anti) hydrogen atoms in strong magnetic fields

G. Wunner, Wolfgang Schweizer, H. Ruder

Türker Topçu, F. Robicheaux

Liberman, А. В. Петров

K. H. Welge

Although the hydrogen atom has naturally served as the basis for extensive theoretical studies of the physics of highly excited atoms in strong external fields, experiments with this fundamentally important species in magnetic fields have not been reported, except for the most recent ones carried out in our laboratory.1,2 We report new results of studies on the spectroscopy of the atom in static homogeneous magnetic fields of strength B ≲ 6 T at excitation energies from high Rydberg states (n ≳ 20) into the ionization region (E ≲ +30 cm−1).

Е. А. Соловьев

F. Robicheaux, James D. Hanson

Using a classical Monte Carlo method, we have computed the three-body recombination (two free electrons and a proton scattering into one free electron and a hydrogen atom: $e+e+\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{p}\mathrm{H}+e)$ in strong magnetic fields. The proton is allowed its full motion whereas the motion of the electron is given by the guiding center approximation. We investigate recombination for temperatures and fields similar to those used in recent experiments that generated anti-hydrogen. When the proton has the same temperature as the electrons, the recombination rate for the more elaborate equations of motion is roughly 60% larger than for the $\stackrel{\ensuremath{\rightarrow}}{B}\ensuremath{\infty}$ approximation. The recombination rate decreases as the proton speed approaches the electron thermal speed; the variation of this rate has implications for the directionality of the anti-atoms formed in recent experiments. We report on several properties of the atoms formed by three-body recombination in strong magnetic fields.