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Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics

Field induced electron-ion recombination, a novel route towards neutral (anti-) matter

Lambertus D. Noordam, C. Wesdorp, F. Robicheaux

Published Aug 29, 2005• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

Summary form only given. A breakthrough, paving the way to serious research into the properties of neutral antimatter, would be the wall-free confinement of cold antihydrogen atoms. To produce such cold antihydrogen atoms and catch them before they annihilate with matter is the primary goal of the ATRAP (antihydrogen trap) collaboration. Once trapped, cold antihydrogen atoms can be used for experiments such as tests of CPT invariance or gravity measurements. Here we present a new recombination scheme using pulsed electric fields as slow as 1 ns.

DOI
10.1109/iqec.2000.907951

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Physical Review Letters•Apr 24, 2000•53 citations
Summary form only given. A breakthrough, paving the way to serious research into the properties of neutral antimatter, would be the wall-free confinement of cold antihydrogen atoms. To produce such cold antihydrogen atoms and catch them before they annihilate with matter is the primary goal of the ATRAP (antihydrogen trap) collaboration. Once trapped, cold antihydrogen atoms can be used for experiments such as tests of CPT invariance or gravity measurements. Here we present a new recombination scheme using pulsed electric fields as slow as 1 ns.
ATRAP’s e + cooling of p in a nested Penning trap has led to reports of cold Hproduced during such cooling by the ATHENA and ATRAP collaborations. ATHENA uses coincident annihilation detection and ATRAP uses field ionization followed by p storage. Advantages of the later method include the complete absence of a substantial background of false events intrinsic to the former, and the first way to measure which H states are produced. ATRAP enhances the H production rate by driving many cycles of e + cooling in the nested trap, with more H counted in an hour than the sum of all the other antimatter atoms ever reported. The number of Hcounted per incident high energy p is also higher than ever observed. The first measured distribution of H states is made using a pre-ionizing electric field between separated production and detection regions. The high rate and the high Rydberg states suggest that the H is formed via three-body recombination, as expected. 1
The pulsed-field recombination scheme is used to recombine free electrons with Li+{\mathrm{Li}}^{+}Li+ ions to produce neutral Li atoms in a high Rydberg state $(n\ensuremath{\approx}180).$ The experimental conditions are similar to the conditions under which antiprotons and positrons are recombined to produce cold antihydrogen. In the current experiments we have trapped electrons in a Penning trap $(B\ensuremath{\approx}35\mathrm{mT}).$ Subsequently these electrons were recombined with spatially separated Li+{\mathrm{Li}}^{+}Li+ ions. The recorded efficiency is 2.0% versus 0.3% in previous experiments with atomic ions. Several experiments and simulations were performed to study the dynamics of pulsed-field recombination in more detail.
The author's ATRAP team has managed to simultaneously accumulate cold antiprotons and cold positrons. Cold antihydrogen is produced when antiprotons are repeatedly driven into collisions with cold positrons within a nested Penning trap. Efficient antihydrogen production takes place during many cycles of positron cooling of antiprotons. A first measurement of a distribution of antihydrogen states is made using a preionizing electric field between separated production and detection regions. Surviving antihydrogen is stripped in an ionization well that captures and stores the free antiproton for background-free detection. A background-free observation of cold antihydrogen atoms was made using field ionization followed by antiproton storage, a detection method that provided the first experimental information about antihydrogen atomic states. More antihydrogen atoms can be field ionized in an hour than all the anti-matter atoms that have been previously reported, and the production rate per incident high energy antiproton is higher than ever observed. The high rate and the high Rydberg states suggest that the antihydrogen is formed via three-body recombination. This report presents bibliographic citations for 10 publications and 36 lectures that were produced during 2004 under this contract. The author also was the recipient of the George Ledlie Prize at Harvard University in 2004.
ANTIMATTERThanks to a new method a Dutch-American team has demonstrated for recombining free electrons with ions to form atoms, researcher may finally be able to create antimatter in sufficient quantities for study. In the 24 April Physical Review Letters , researchers describe how they enabled rubidium ions to trap electrons by applying a pulsed electric field in a series of steps similar to the way a child traps an insect in a jar. The team claims the technique can be used to produce atoms of antihydrogen, the simplest form of antimatter, in greater numbers than ever before.
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.