Recently, a new project, ASACUSA (Atomic Spectroscopy And Collisions Using Slow Antiprotons), has started, which aims at studying collision dynamics with slow antiprotons and high precision spectroscopy of antiprotonic atoms. It is expected that the ultra slow monoenergetic antiproton beams will open a new physics regime relating to antimatter science under very well controlled conditions. In the present report, several research plans, which includes ionization, excitation, stopping power, channeling, antiprotonic atom formation, high resolution antiprotonic atom spectroscopy, etc. are discussed. The way to prepare ultra slow antiprotons is also presented.
Ultra slow mono-energetic antiproton beams are under preparation combining novel techniques to decelerate antiprotons with an RFQD (Radio Frequency Quadrupole Decelerator), to trap, cool, and compress in an electromagnetic trap, and finally to extract as an ultra slow mono-energetic beam. This unique beam will make it possible to study the ionization processes around adiabatic energy regions, channeling, stopping power, antiprotonic atom formation processes under single collision conditions, to prepare metastable antiprotonic atoms such as p̄p, p̄He+, p̄He++, p̄Li+ in vacuum, and to make high precision laser spectroscopy of them. This project named ASACUSA (Atomic Spectroscopy And Collisions Using Slow Antiprotons) is expected to open a new physics regime in antimatter science under well controlled conditions.
The Aharonov–Bohm (AB) effect is one of the most striking features of quantum physics, and it is of critical importance to elucidate the role of the electromagnetic potential and its physical meaning. In spite of the fact that it was first proposed in 1949, up to now it has only been demonstrated for electrons and neutrons. We propose the realization of an experiment to study the AB effect for the antiproton, which will have the double feature of being a non-elementary charged particle and at the same time an antiparticle. The experiment will be conducted in collaboration with the ASACUSA (Atomic Spectroscopy And Collisions Using Slow Antiprotons) group at the CERN AD (Antiproton Decelerator), making use of a slow antiproton beam.