Towards antihydrogen trapping and spectroscopy at ALPHA

• Published in: Hyperfine interactions 2011, Vol.199 (1-3), p.39-48
• Main Authors: Butler, E., Andresen, G. B., Ashkezari, M. D., Baquero-Ruiz, M., Bertsche, W., Bowe, P. D., Bray, C. C., Cesar, C. L., Chapman, S., Charlton, M., Fajans, J., Friesen, T., Fujiwara, M. C., Gill, D. R., Hangst, J. S., Hardy, W. N., Hayano, R. S., Hayden, M. E., Humphries, A. J., Hydomako, R., Jonsell, S., Kurchaninov, L., Lambo, R., Madsen, N., Menary, S., Nolan, P., Olchanski, K., Olin, A., Povilus, A., Pusa, P., Robicheaux, F., Sarid, E., Silveira, D. M., So, C., Storey, J. W., Thompson, R. I., van der Werf, D. P., Wilding, D., Wurtele, J. S., Yamazaki, Y.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Atomic; Condensed Matter Physics; Hadrons; Heavy Ions; Molecular; Nuclear Physics; Optical and Plasma Physics; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Surfaces and Interfaces; Thin Films
• ISSN: 0304-3843; 1572-9540; 1572-9540
• DOI: 10.1007/s10751-011-0299-3

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.