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Antihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?

The merging of antiprotons with a positron plasma is the predominant and highest efficient method for cold antihydrogen formation used to date. We present experimental evidence that this method has serious disadvantages for producing antihydrogen cold enough to be trapped. Antihydrogen is neutral but...

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Autor principal: Madsen, N
Lenguaje:eng
Publicado: 2006
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2387921
http://cds.cern.ch/record/1020274
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author Madsen, N
author_facet Madsen, N
author_sort Madsen, N
collection CERN
description The merging of antiprotons with a positron plasma is the predominant and highest efficient method for cold antihydrogen formation used to date. We present experimental evidence that this method has serious disadvantages for producing antihydrogen cold enough to be trapped. Antihydrogen is neutral but may be trapped in a magnetic field minimum. However, the depth of such traps are of order 1 K, shallow compared to the kinetic energies in current antihydrogen experiments. Studying the spatial distribution of the antihydrogen emerging from the ATHENA positron plasma we have, by comparison with a simple model, extracted information about the temperature of the antihydrogen formed. We find that antihydrogen is formed before thermal equilibrium is attained between the antiprotons and the positrons, and thus that further positron cooling may not be sufficient for producing antihydrogen cold enough to be trapped. We discuss the implications for trapping of antihydrogen in a magnetic trap, important for ongoing work by the ALPHA collaboration.
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institution Organización Europea para la Investigación Nuclear
language eng
publishDate 2006
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spelling cern-10202742019-09-30T06:29:59Zdoi:10.1063/1.2387921http://cds.cern.ch/record/1020274engMadsen, NAntihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?Other Fields of PhysicsThe merging of antiprotons with a positron plasma is the predominant and highest efficient method for cold antihydrogen formation used to date. We present experimental evidence that this method has serious disadvantages for producing antihydrogen cold enough to be trapped. Antihydrogen is neutral but may be trapped in a magnetic field minimum. However, the depth of such traps are of order 1 K, shallow compared to the kinetic energies in current antihydrogen experiments. Studying the spatial distribution of the antihydrogen emerging from the ATHENA positron plasma we have, by comparison with a simple model, extracted information about the temperature of the antihydrogen formed. We find that antihydrogen is formed before thermal equilibrium is attained between the antiprotons and the positrons, and thus that further positron cooling may not be sufficient for producing antihydrogen cold enough to be trapped. We discuss the implications for trapping of antihydrogen in a magnetic trap, important for ongoing work by the ALPHA collaboration.oai:cds.cern.ch:10202742006
spellingShingle Other Fields of Physics
Madsen, N
Antihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?
title Antihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?
title_full Antihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?
title_fullStr Antihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?
title_full_unstemmed Antihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?
title_short Antihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?
title_sort antihydrogen from merged plasmas - cold enough to trap?
topic Other Fields of Physics
url https://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.2387921
http://cds.cern.ch/record/1020274
work_keys_str_mv AT madsenn antihydrogenfrommergedplasmascoldenoughtotrap