Category: Publication Content Type
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Enhanced Control and Reproducibility of Non-Neutral Plasmas
The simultaneous control of the density and particle number of non-neutral plasmas confined in Penning-Malmberg traps is demonstrated. Control is achieved by setting the plasma’s density by applying a rotating electric field while simultaneously fixing its axial potential via evaporative cooling. This novel method is particularly useful for stabilizing positron plasmas, as the procedures used
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Antihydrogen accumulation for fundamental symmetry tests
Antihydrogen, a positron bound to an antiproton, is the simplest anti-atom. Its structure and properties are expected to mirror those of the hydrogen atom. Prospects for precision comparisons of the two, as tests of fundamental symmetries, are driving a vibrant programme of research. In this regard, a limiting factor in most experiments is the availability
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Aspects of 1S-2S spectroscopy of trapped antihydrogen atoms
Antihydrogen atoms are now routinely trapped in small numbers. One of the purposes of this effort is to make precision comparisons of the 1 S -2 S transition in hydrogen and antihydrogen as a precision test of the CPT theorem. We investigate, through calculations and simulations, various methods by which the 1 S -2 S
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Laser-Ablated Beryllium Ions For Cold Antihydrogen In ALPHA
One of the best ways to study antimatter is to investigate antihydrogen, the bound state of an antiproton and a positron. Antihydrogen atoms do not exist naturally and must be synthesized in the lab by merging carefully-prepared plasmas of positrons and antiprotons. If the atoms are created in a magnetic trap like the one used
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Observation of the hyperfine spectrum of antihydrogen
We report the observation of the hyperfine spectrum of antihydrogen. By exposing trapped antihydrogen to microwave radiation and scanning the microwave frequency over two distinct transitions, we are able to extract the ground state hyperfine splitting. From a series of measurements involving a total of 194 detected atoms, we determine a splitting of 1,420.4 ±
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Tests Of Fundamental Symmetries With Trapped Antihydrogen
Antihydrogen is the simplest pure antimatter atomic system, and it allows for direct tests of CPT symmetry as well as the weak equivalence principle. Furthermore, the study of antihydrogen may provide clues to the matter- antimatter asymmetry observed in the universe – one of the major unanswered questions in modern physics. Since 2010, it has
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Cold Antihydrogen Experiments And Radial Compression Of Antiproton Clouds In The ALPHA Apparatus At CERN
Antihydrogen is the simplest neutral antimatter atom. Precision comparisons between hydrogen and antihydrogen would provide stringent tests of CPT (charge conjugation/parity transformation/time reversal) invariance and the weak equivalence principle. In the last few years, the ALPHA collaboration has produced, and trapped antihydrogen [1, 2]. Most recently, this collaboration has probed antihydrogen’s internal structure by inducing
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Observation of the 1S-2S transition in trapped antihydrogen
We report the observation of the 1S-2S transition in magnetically trapped atoms of antihydrogen in the ALPHA-2 apparatus at CERN. We determine that the frequency of the transition, driven by two photons from a frequency stabilised laser at 243 nm, is consistent with that expected for hydrogen in the same environment. This represents the first
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Antiproton cloud compression in the ALPHA apparatus at CERN
We have observed a new mechanism for compression of a non-neutral plasma, where antiprotons embedded in an electron plasma are compressed by a rotating wall drive at a frequency close to the sum of the axial bounce and rotation frequencies. The radius of the antiproton cloud is reduced by up to a factor of 20
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An improved limit on the charge of antihydrogen from stochastic acceleration
Antimatter continues to intrigue physicists because of its apparent absence in the observable Universe. Current theory requires that matter and antimatter appeared in equal quantities after the Big Bang, but the Standard Model of particle physics offers no quantitative explanation for the apparent disappearance of half the Universe. It has recently become possible to study