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APS

Cooling by Spontaneous Decay of Highly Excited Antihydrogen Atoms in Magnetic Traps

Thomas Pohl, H. R. Sadeghpour, Y. Nagata, Y. Yamazaki

Published Jun 1, 2007• 0 citations
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Abstract

An efficient cooling mechanism of magnetically trapped, highly excited antihydrogen (H) atoms is presented. This cooling, in addition to the expected evaporative cooling, results in trapping of a large number of H atoms in the ground state. It is found that the final fraction of trapped atoms is insensitive to the initial distribution of H magnetic quantum numbers. Expressions are derived for the cooling efficiency, demonstrating that magnetic quadrupole (cusp) traps provide stronger cooling than higher order magnetic multipoles. The final temperature of H confined in a cusp trap is shown to depend as {approx}2.2T{sub n{sub 0}}n{sub 0}{sup -2/3} on the initial Rydberg level n{sub 0} and temperature T{sub n{sub 0}}.

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AIP conference proceedings•Jan 1, 2013•0 citations
An efficient cooling mechanism of magnetically trapped, highly excited antihydrogen (H) atoms is presented. This cooling, in addition to the expected evaporative cooling, results in trapping of a large number of H atoms in the ground state. It is found that the final fraction of trapped atoms is insensitive to the initial distribution of H magnetic quantum numbers. Expressions are derived for the cooling efficiency, demonstrating that magnetic quadrupole (cusp) traps provide stronger cooling than higher order magnetic multipoles. The final temperature of H confined in a cusp trap is shown to depend as {approx}2.2T{sub n{sub 0}}n{sub 0}{sup -2/3} on the initial Rydberg level n{sub 0} and temperature T{sub n{sub 0}}.
An efficient cooling mechanism of magnetically trapped, highly excited antihydrogen (H) atoms is presented. This cooling, in addition to the expected evaporative cooling, results in trapping of a large number of H atoms in the ground state. It is found that the final fraction of trapped atoms is insensitive to the initial distribution of H magnetic quantum numbers. Expressions are derived for the cooling efficiency, demonstrating that magnetic quadrupole (cusp) traps provide stronger cooling than higher order magnetic multipoles. The final temperature of H confined in a cusp trap is shown to depend as approximately 2.2T(n0)n(0)(-2/3) on the initial Rydberg level n0 and temperature T(n0).
Abstract We present results of simulations highlighting the performance of a cooling mechanism in a magnetic trap tailored for excited Rydberg atoms (or molecules) with high magnetic moment. Unlike previous work, the cooling is achieved through fast stimulated decay of inter-manifold transitions which optimizes the scheme. This mechanism is relevant to experiments with trapped antihydrogen atoms for which the trapping fraction is currently low. We find several-fold enhancements of the number of atoms trapped in the configurations probed.
We propose a usage of microwave radiation in a magnetic trap for improving the cooling and trapping of cold antihydrogen atoms which are initially produced in high magnetic moment states. Inducing transitions toward lower magnetic moments near the turning points of the atom in the trap, followed by spontaneous emission, should enhance the number of trappable atoms. We present results of simulations based on a typical experimental condition of the antihydrogen experiments at CERN. This technique should also be applicable to other trapped high magnetic moment Rydberg atoms.
We have studied the radiative decay of atomic hydrogen in strong magnetic fields of up to 4T4\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{T}4T. We have followed the radiative cascade from completely l,ml,ml,m mixed distributions of highly excited states as well as from distributions that involve highly excited states with $\ensuremath{\mid}m\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\sim}n$. We have found that the time it takes to populate the ground state is not affected by the magnetic field for the initial states with $n\ensuremath{\lesssim}20$. For higher nnn manifolds, the electrons in the most negative mmm states are substantially slowed down by the magnetic field resulting in a much longer lifetime. We show that less than 10% of the antihydrogen atoms with $n\ensuremath{\sim}35$ generated in antihydrogen experiments at 4K4\phantom{\rule{0.3em}{0ex}}\mathrm{K}4K will decay to their ground states before they hit the wall of the vacuum container unless they are trapped. We have also found that the decay time is mainly determined by the fraction of atoms that were initially in highest negative mmm states due to the fact that only $\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\Delta}m\ensuremath{\mid}+\ensuremath{\mid}\ensuremath{\Delta}\ensuremath{\pi}\ensuremath{\mid}=1$ transitions are allowed in the magnetic field. We give a semiclassical method for calculating the decay rates for circular states and show that when the initial states have high-$\ensuremath{\mid}m\ensuremath{\mid}$, semiclassical rates agree with the full quantum mechanical rates within a couple of percent for states with effective $n\ensuremath{\gtrsim}20$.
The recent demonstration of trapped atomic antihydrogen for 15 to 1000 seconds is a milestone towards precise spectroscopy for tests of CPT invariance. The confinement of a total of 105±21 atoms in a quadrupole magnetic trap was made possible by several improved methods. Improved accumulation techniques give us the largest numbers of constituent particles yet: up to 10 million antiprotons and several billion positrons. A novel cooling protocol leads to 3.5 K antiprotons, the coldest ever observed. Characterizing and controlling the geometry and density of these confined antimatter plasmas allow for consistency in antihydrogen production. Continued use of these methods along with the larger trap depth of a unique second-generation magnet are expected to yield greater numbers of trapped antihydrogen. The new magnet generates both quadrupole and octupole trap geometries, which should make it possible to reduce charged particle loss and will prove useful for laser cooling and spectroscopy. The ultra-low inductances of the magnet have been shown to vastly reduce turn-off times, which will optimize single-atom detection. Finally, improved detector characterization already makes us sensitive to smaller numbers of trapped antihydrogen atoms than before.
We describe the implementation of evaporative cooling of charged particles in the ALPHA apparatus. Forced evaporation has been applied to cold samples of antiprotons held in Malmberg-Penning traps. Temperatures on the order of 10 K were obtained, while retaining a significant fraction of the initial number of particles. We have developed a model for the evaporation process based on simple rate equations and applied it succesfully to the experimental data. We have also observed radial re-distribution of the clouds following evaporation, explained by simple conservation laws. We discuss the relevance of this technique for the recent demonstration of magnetic trapping of antihydrogen.