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Towards antihydrogen trapping and spectroscopy at ALPHA

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Abstract

Spectroscopy of antihydrogen has the potential to yield high-precision tests of the CPT theorem and shed light on the matter-antimatter imbalance in the Universe. The ALPHA antihydrogen trap at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator aims to prepare a sample of antihydrogen atoms confined in an octupole-based Ioffe trap and to measure the frequency of several atomic transitions. We describe our techniques to directly measure the antiproton temperature and a new technique to cool them to below 10 K. We also show how our unique position-sensitive annihilation detector provides us with a highly sensitive method of identifying antiproton annihilations and effectively rejecting the cosmic-ray background.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Swansea University, Swansea, SA2 8PP, UK

    E. Butler, W. Bertsche, M. Charlton, A. J. Humphries, N. Madsen, D. P. van der Werf & D. Wilding

  2. Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark

    G. B. Andresen, P. D. Bowe & J. S. Hangst

  3. Department of Physics, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby BC, V5A 1S6, Canada

    M. D. Ashkezari & M. E. Hayden

  4. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA, 94720-7300, USA

    M. Baquero-Ruiz, C. C. Bray, S. Chapman, J. Fajans, A. Povilus, C. So & J. S. Wurtele

  5. Instituto de Física, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, 21941-972, Brazil

    C. L. Cesar & R. Lambo

  6. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Calgary, Calgary AB, T2N 1N4, Canada

    T. Friesen, M. C. Fujiwara, R. Hydomako & R. I. Thompson

  7. TRIUMF, 4004 Wesbrook Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 2A3, Canada

    M. C. Fujiwara, D. R. Gill, L. Kurchaninov, K. Olchanski, A. Olin & J. W. Storey

  8. Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4, Canada

    W. N. Hardy

  9. Department of Physics, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    R. S. Hayano

  10. Fysikum, Stockholm University, 10609, Stockholm, Sweden

    S. Jonsell

  11. Department of Physics and Astronomy, York University, Toronto, ON, M3J 1P3, Canada

    S. Menary

  12. Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZE, UK

    P. Nolan & P. Pusa

  13. Department of Physics, Auburn University, Auburn, AL, 36849-5311, USA

    F. Robicheaux

  14. Department of Physics, NRCN-Nuclear Research Center Negev, Beer Sheva, 84190, Israel

    E. Sarid

  15. Atomic Physics Laboratory, RIKEN Advanced Science Institute, Wako, Saitama, 351-0198, Japan

    D. M. Silveira & Y. Yamazaki

  16. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 153-8902, Japan

    D. M. Silveira & Y. Yamazaki

Authors
  1. E. Butler
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  2. G. B. Andresen
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  3. M. D. Ashkezari
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  4. M. Baquero-Ruiz
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  5. W. Bertsche
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  6. P. D. Bowe
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  7. C. C. Bray
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  8. C. L. Cesar
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  9. S. Chapman
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  10. M. Charlton
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  11. J. Fajans
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  12. T. Friesen
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  13. M. C. Fujiwara
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  14. D. R. Gill
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  15. J. S. Hangst
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  16. W. N. Hardy
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  17. R. S. Hayano
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  18. M. E. Hayden
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  19. A. J. Humphries
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  20. R. Hydomako
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  21. S. Jonsell
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  22. L. Kurchaninov
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  23. R. Lambo
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  24. N. Madsen
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  25. S. Menary
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  26. P. Nolan
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  27. K. Olchanski
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  28. A. Olin
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  29. A. Povilus
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  30. P. Pusa
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  31. F. Robicheaux
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  32. E. Sarid
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  33. D. M. Silveira
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  34. C. So
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  35. J. W. Storey
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  36. R. I. Thompson
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  37. D. P. van der Werf
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  38. D. Wilding
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  39. J. S. Wurtele
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  40. Y. Yamazaki
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ALPHA Collaboration

Corresponding author

Correspondence to E. Butler.

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Butler, E., Andresen, G.B., Ashkezari, M.D. et al. Towards antihydrogen trapping and spectroscopy at ALPHA. Hyperfine Interact 199, 39–48 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-011-0299-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10751-011-0299-3

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