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We describe the implementation of evaporative cooling of charged particles in the ALPHA apparatus. Forced evaporation has been applied to cold samples of antiprotons held in Malmberg-Penning traps. Temperatures on the order of 10 K were obtained, while retaining a significant fraction of the initial number of particles. We have developed a model for the evaporation process based on simple rate equations and applied it succesfully to the experimental data. We have also observed radial re-distribution of the clouds following evaporation, explained by simple conservation laws. We discuss the relevance of this technique for the recent demonstration of magnetic trapping of antihydrogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last decades it has become routine to form beams of positrons and antiprotons and to use them to produce trapped samples of both species for a variety of purposes. Positrons can be captured efficiently, for instance using a buffer-gas system, and in such quantities to form dense, single component plasmas useful for antihydrogen formation. The latter is possible using developments of techniques for dynamically capturing and then cooling antiprotons ejected from the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN. The antiprotons can then be manipulated by cloud compression and evaporative cooling to form tailored plasmas. We will review recent advances that have allowed antihydrogen atoms to be confined for the first time in a shallow magnetic minimum neutral atom trap superimposed upon the region in which the antiparticles are held and mixed. A new mixing technique has been developed to help achieve this using autoresonant excitation of the centreofmass longitudinal motion of an antiproton cloud. This allows efficient antihydrogen formation without imparting excess energy to the antiprotons and helps enhance the probability of trapping the anti-atom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ALPHA apparatus is designed to produce and trap antihydrogen atoms. The device comprises a multifunction Penning trap and a superconducting, neutral atom trap having a minimum-B configuration. The atom trap features an octupole magnet for transverse confinement and solenoidal mirror coils for longitudinal confinement. The magnetic trap employs a fast shutdown system to maximize the probability of detecting the annihilation of released antihydrogen. In this article we describe the first attempts to observe antihydrogen trapping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Control of the radial profile of trapped antiproton clouds is critical to trapping antihydrogen. We report detailed measurements of the radial manipulation of antiproton clouds, including areal density compressions by factors as large as ten, achieved by manipulating spatially overlapped electron plasmas. We show detailed measurements of the near-axis antiproton radial profile, and its relation to that of the electron plasma. We also measure the outer radial profile by ejecting antiprotons to the trap wall using an octupole magnet. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]