Search

The ALPHA project is an international collaboration, based at CERN, with the experimental goal of performing precision spectroscopic measurements on antihydrogen. As part of this endeavor, the ALPHA experiment includes a silicon tracking detector. This detector consists of a three-layer array of silicon modules surrounding the antihydrogen trapping region of the ALPHA apparatus. Using this device, the antihydrogen annihilation position can be determined with a spatial resolution of better than 5 mm. Knowledge of the annihilation distribution was a critical component in the recently successful antihydrogen trapping effort. This paper will describe the methods used to reconstruct annihilation events in the ALPHA detector. Particular attention will be given to the description of the background rejection criteria.

Precision comparisons of hyperfine intervals in atomic hydrogen and antihydrogen are expected to yield experimental tests of the CPT theorem. The CERN-based ALPHA collaboration has initiated a program of study focused on microwave spectroscopy of trapped ground-state antihydrogen atoms. This paper outlines some of the proposed experiments, and summarizes measurements that characterize microwave fields that have been injected into the ALPHA apparatus.

Precision spectroscopic comparison of hydrogen and antihydrogen holds the promise of a sensitive test of the Charge-Parity-Time theorem and matter-antimatter equivalence. The clearest path towards realising this goal is to hold a sample of antihydrogen in an atomic trap for interrogation by electromagnetic radiation. Achieving this poses a huge experimental challenge, as state-of-the-art magnetic-minimum atom traps have well depths of only ∼1 T (∼0.5 K for ground state antihydrogen atoms). The atoms annihilate on contact with matter and must be ‘born’ inside the magnetic trap with low kinetic energies. At the ALPHA experiment, antihydrogen atoms are produced from antiprotons and positrons stored in the form of non-neutral plasmas, where the typical electrostatic potential energy per particle is on the order of electronvolts, more than 104 times the maximum trappable kinetic energy. In November 2010, ALPHA published the observation of 38 antiproton annihilations due to antihydrogen atoms that had been trapped for at least 172 ms and then released—the first instance of a purely antimatter atomic system confined for any length of time (Andresen et al., Nature 468:673, 2010). We present a description of the main components of the ALPHA traps and detectors that were key to realising this result. We discuss how the antihydrogen atoms were identified and how they were discriminated from the background processes. Since the results published in Andresen et al. (Nature 468:673, 2010), refinements in the antihydrogen production technique have allowed many more antihydrogen atoms to be trapped, and held for much longer times. We have identified antihydrogen atoms that have been trapped for at least 1,000 s in the apparatus (Andresen et al., Nature Physics 7:558, 2011). This is more than sufficient time to interrogate the atoms spectroscopically, as well as to ensure that they have relaxed to their ground state.

In efforts to trap antihydrogen, a key problem is the vast disparity between the neutral trap energy scale (\(\sim\!50\,\upmu\mathrm{eV}\)), and the energy scales associated with plasma confinement and space charge (~1 eV). In order to merge charged particle species for direct recombination, the larger energy scale must be overcome in a manner that minimizes the initial antihydrogen kinetic energy. This issue motivated the development of a novel injection technique utilizing the inherent nonlinear nature of particle oscillations in our traps. We demonstrated controllable excitation of the center-of-mass longitudinal motion of a thermal antiproton plasma using a swept-frequency autoresonant drive. When the plasma is cold, dense and highly collective in nature, we observe that the entire system behaves as a single-particle nonlinear oscillator, as predicted by a recent theory. In contrast, only a fraction of the antiprotons in a warm or tenuous plasma can be similarly excited. Antihydrogen was produced and trapped by using this technique to drive antiprotons into a positron plasma, thereby initiating atomic recombination. The nature of this injection overcomes some of the difficulties associated with matching the energies of the charged species used to produce antihydrogen.

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., 10 pages, 5 figures

Antihydrogen spectroscopy promises precise tests of the symmetry of matter and antimatter, and can possibly offer new insights into the baryon asymmetry of the universe. Antihydrogen is, however, difficult to synthesize and is produced only in small quantities. The ALPHA collaboration is therefore pursuing a path towards trapping cold antihydrogen to permit the use of precision atomic physics tools to carry out comparisons of antihydrogen and hydrogen. ALPHA has addressed these challenges. Control of the plasma sizes has helped to lower the influence of the multipole field used in the neutral atom trap, and thus lowered the temperature of the created atoms. Finally, the first systematic attempt to identify trapped antihydrogen in our system is discussed. This discussion includes special techniques for fast release of the trapped anti-atoms, as well as a silicon vertex detector to identify antiproton annihilations. The silicon detector reduces the background of annihilations, including background from antiprotons that can be mirror trapped in the fields of the neutral atom trap. A description of how to differentiate between these events and those resulting from trapped antihydrogen atoms is also included.

Antihydrogen production in a neutral atom trap formed by an octupole-based magnetic field minimum is demonstrated using field-ionization of weakly bound anti-atoms. Using our unique annihilation imaging detector, we correlate antihydrogen detection by imaging and by field-ionization for the first time. We further establish how field-ionization causes radial redistribution of the antiprotons during antihydrogen formation and use this effect for the first simultaneous measurements of strongly and weakly bound antihydrogen atoms. Distinguishing between these provides critical information needed in the process of optimizing for trappable antihydrogen. These observations are of crucial importance to the ultimate goal of performing CPT tests involving antihydrogen, which likely depends upon trapping the anti-atom. Antihydrogen production in a neutral atom trap formed by an octupole-based magnetic field minimum is demonstrated using field-ionization of weakly bound anti-atoms. Using our unique annihilation imaging detector, we correlate antihydrogen detection by imaging and by field-ionization for the first time. We further establish how field-ionization causes radial redistribution of the antiprotons during antihydrogen formation and use this effect for the first simultaneous measurements of strongly and weakly bound antihydrogen atoms. Distinguishing between these provides critical information needed in the process of optimizing for trappable antihydrogen. These observations are of crucial importance to the ultimate goal of performing CPT tests involving antihydrogen, which likely depends upon trapping the anti-atom.

The goal of the ALPHA collaboration at CERN is to test CPT conservation by comparing the 1S–2S transitions of hydrogen and antihydrogen. To reach the ultimate accuracy of 1 part in 10 18 , the (anti)atoms must be trapped. Using current technology, only magnetic minimum traps can confine (anti)hydrogen. In this paper, the design of the ALPHA antihydrogen trap and the results of measurements on a prototype system will be presented. The trap depth of the final system will be 1.16 T, corresponding to a temperature of 0.78 K for ground state antihydrogen.

Antihydrogen, the atomic bound state of an antiproton and a positron, was produced at low energy for the first time by the ATHENA experiment, marking an important first step for precision studies of atomic antimatter. This paper describes the first production and some subsequent developments., Invitated Talk at COOL03, International Workshop on Beam Cooling and Related Topics, to be published in NIM A

The production and observation of cold antihydrogen atoms have been recently reported by the ATHENA experiment at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator. The antiatoms were produced by mixing low-energy antiprotons and positrons in an electromagnetic trap. The antihydrogen detection is based on the observation of a characteristic signature in the annihilation of the neutral antiatoms on the trap walls by means of an imaging particle detector. An overview of the apparatus is given and the results obtained are discussed.

The ATHENA experiment recently produced the first atoms of cold antihydrogen. This paper gives a brief review of how this was achieved., Invited talk at Int. Conf. on Low Energy Antiprotons 2003 (LEAP03), to be published in NIM B

The ATHENA experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator facility at CERN aims at testing CPT symmetry with antihydrogen. An overview of the experiment, together with preliminary results of development towards the production of slow antihydrogen are reported.

We describe the latest results from laser cooling experiments using Mg ions in the ASTRID storage ring. In particular, we focus on the transverse dynamics of the longitudinally cooled beam. We have developed a direct imaging technique, using the laser fluorescence to determine the horizontal and vertical distributions in the beam. The beam can now be imaged in real time, using an image intensifier and a fast-sampling CCD camera. The sensitivity and resolution of this system allow direct observation of beams which are well below the longitudinal charge density corresponding to a “string” of particles. We have observed space-charge limitations to the transverse beam sizes, as well as intriguing instabilities of very low-current beams.

We have created multispecies Coulomb crystals in a linear Paul trap containing up to a few hundred ions of which more than 50{percent} were cooled only sympathetically through the Coulomb interaction with laser-cooled Mg{sup +} ions. In an extreme case, one laser-cooled ion maintained order in a 15thinspthinspion string. Ion species segregation was obtained by radiation pressure. Previous experiments and molecular dynamics simulations suggest the temperature is 10thinspthinspmK or lower. These results indicate that a wide range of atomic and molecular ions can be cooled and localized in linear Paul traps which is important for improvements in spectroscopic studies of such ions. {copyright} {ital 1999} {ital The American Physical Society}

Long term magnetic confinement of antihydrogen atoms has recently been demonstrated by the ALPHA collaboration at CERN, opening the door to a range of experimental possibilities. Of particular interest is a measurement of the antihydrogen spectrum. A precise comparison of the spectrum of antihydrogen with that of hydrogen would be an excellent test of CPT symmetry. One prime candidate for precision CPT tests is the ground-state hyperfine transition; measured in hydrogen to a precision of nearly one part in 1012. Effective execution of such an experiment with trapped antihydrogen requires precise knowledge of the magnetic environment. Here we present a solution that uses an electron plasma confined in the antihydrogen trapping region. The cyclotron resonance of the electron plasma is probed with microwaves at the cyclotron frequency and the subsequent heating of the electron plasma is measured through the plasma quadrupole mode frequency. Using this method, the minimum magnetic field of the neutral trap can be determined to within 4 parts in 104. This technique was used extensively in the recent demonstration of resonant interaction with the hyperfine levels of trapped antihydrogen atoms.

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.

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.

The ALPHA experiment, located at CERN, aims to compare the properties of antihydrogen atoms with those of hydrogen atoms. The neutral antihydrogen atoms are trapped using an octupole magnetic trap. The trap region is surrounded by a three layered silicon detector used to reconstruct the antiproton annihilation vertices. This paper describes a method we have devised that can be used for reconstructing annihilation vertices with a good resolution and is more efficient than the standard method currently used for the same purpose.

The goal of the ALPHA experiment is the production, trapping and spectroscopy of antihydrogen. A direct comparison of the ground state hyperfine spectra in hydrogen and antihydrogen has the potential to be a high-precision test of CPT symmetry. We present a novel method for measuring the strength of a microwave field for hyperfine spectroscopy in a Penning trap. This method incorporates a non-destructive plasma diagnostic system based on electrostatic modes within an electron plasma. We also show how this technique can be used to measure the cyclotron resonance of the electron plasma, which can potentially serve as a non-destructive measurement of plasma temperature.

The ALPHA experiment has succeeded in trapping antihydrogen, a major milestone on the road to spectroscopic comparisons of antihydrogen with hydrogen. An annihilation vertex detector, which determines the time and position of antiproton annihilations, has been central to this achievement. This detector, an array of double-sided silicon microstrip detector modules arranged in three concentric cylindrical tiers, is sensitive to the passage of charged particles resulting from antiproton annihilation. This article describes the method used to reconstruct the annihilation location and to distinguish the annihilation signal from the cosmic ray background. Recent experimental results using this detector are outlined.

ALPHA is one of the experiments situated at CERN's Antiproton Decelerator (AD). A Silicon Vertex Detector (SVD) is placed to surround the ALPHA atom trap. The main purpose of the SVD is to detect and locate antiproton annihilation events by means of the emitted charged pions. The SVD system is presented with special focus given to the design, fabrication and performance of the modules.

Atoms made of a particle and an antiparticle are unstable, usually surviving less than a microsecond. Antihydrogen, made entirely of antiparticles, is believed to be stable, and it is this longevity that holds the promise of precision studies of matter-antimatter symmetry. We have recently demonstrated trapping of antihydrogen atoms by releasing them after a confinement time of 172 ms. A critical question for future studies is: how long can anti-atoms be trapped? Here we report the observation of anti-atom confinement for 1000 s, extending our earlier results by nearly four orders of magnitude. Our calculations indicate that most of the trapped anti-atoms reach the ground state. Further, we report the first measurement of the energy distribution of trapped antihydrogen which, coupled with detailed comparisons with simulations, provides a key tool for the systematic investigation of trapping dynamics. These advances open up a range of experimental possibilities, including precision studies of CPT symmetry and cooling to temperatures where gravitational effects could become apparent., 30 pages, 4 figures

Charges in cold, multiple-species, non-neutral plasmas separate radially by mass, forming centrifugally-separated states. Here, we report the first detailed measurements of such states in an electron-antiproton plasma, and the first observations of the separation dynamics in any centrifugally-separated system. While the observed equilibrium states are expected and in agreement with theory, the equilibration time is approximately constant over a wide range of parameters, a surprising and as yet unexplained result. Electron-antiproton plasmas play a crucial role in antihydrogen trapping experiments. Charges in cold, multiple-species, non-neutral plasmas separate radially by mass, forming centrifugally-separated states. Here, we report the first detailed measurements of such states in an electron-antiproton plasma, and the first observations of the separation dynamics in any centrifugally-separated system. While the observed equilibrium states are expected and in agreement with theory, the equilibration time is approximately constant over a wide range of parameters, a surprising and as yet unexplained result. Electron-antiproton plasmas play a crucial role in antihydrogen trapping experiments.

We present the results of an experiment to search for trapped antihydrogen atoms with the ALPHA antihydrogen trap at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator. Sensitive diagnostics of the temperatures, sizes, and densities of the trapped antiproton and positron plasmas have been developed, which in turn permitted development of techniques to precisely and reproducibly control the initial experimental parameters. The use of a position-sensitive annihilation vertex detector, together with the capability of controllably quenching the superconducting magnetic minimum trap, enabled us to carry out a high-sensitivity and low-background search for trapped synthesised antihydrogen atoms. We aim to identify the annihilations of antihydrogen atoms held for at least 130 ms in the trap before being released over ~30 ms. After a three-week experimental run in 2009 involving mixing of 10^7 antiprotons with 1.3 10^9 positrons to produce 6 10^5 antihydrogen atoms, we have identified six antiproton annihilation events that are consistent with the release of trapped antihydrogen. The cosmic ray background, estimated to contribute 0.14 counts, is incompatible with this observation at a significance of 5.6 sigma. Extensive simulations predict that an alternative source of annihilations, the escape of mirror-trapped antiprotons, is highly unlikely, though this possibility has not yet been ruled out experimentally., Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures

We demonstrate controllable excitation of the center-of-mass longitudinal motion of a thermal antiproton plasma using a swept-frequency autoresonant drive. When the plasma is cold, dense, and highly collective in nature, we observe that the entire system behaves as a single-particle nonlinear oscillator, as predicted by a recent theory. In contrast, only a fraction of the antiprotons in a warm plasma can be similarly excited. Antihydrogen was produced and trapped by using this technique to drive antiprotons into a positron plasma, thereby initiating atomic recombination.

Antimatter was first predicted in 1931, by Dirac. Work with high-energy antiparticles is now commonplace, and anti-electrons are used regularly in the medical technique of positron emission tomography scanning. Antihydrogen, the bound state of an antiproton and a positron, has been produced at low energies at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) since 2002. Antihydrogen is of interest for use in a precision test of nature's fundamental symmetries. The charge conjugation/parity/time reversal (CPT) theorem, a crucial part of the foundation of the standard model of elementary particles and interactions, demands that hydrogen and antihydrogen have the same spectrum. Given the current experimental precision of measurements on the hydrogen atom (about two parts in 10(14) for the frequency of the 1s-to-2s transition), subjecting antihydrogen to rigorous spectroscopic examination would constitute a compelling, model-independent test of CPT. Antihydrogen could also be used to study the gravitational behaviour of antimatter. However, so far experiments have produced antihydrogen that is not confined, precluding detailed study of its structure. Here we demonstrate trapping of antihydrogen atoms. From the interaction of about 10(7) antiprotons and 7 × 10(8) positrons, we observed 38 annihilation events consistent with the controlled release of trapped antihydrogen from our magnetic trap; the measured background is 1.4 ± 1.4 events. This result opens the door to precision measurements on anti-atoms, which can soon be subjected to the same techniques as developed for hydrogen.

A comparison of the 1S-2S transitions of hydrogen and antihydrogen will yield a stringent test of CPT conservation. Necessarily, the antihydrogen atoms need to be trapped to perform high precision spectroscopy measurements. Therefore, an approximately 0.75 T deep neutral atom trap, equivalent to about 0.5 K for ground state (anti)hydrogen atoms, has been superimposed on a Penning-Malmberg trap in which the anti-atoms are formed. The antihydrogen atoms are produced following a number of steps. A bunch of antiprotons from the CERN Antiproton Decelerator is caught in a Penning-Malmberg trap and subsequently sympathetically cooled and then compressed using rotating wall electric fields. A positron plasma, formed in a separate accumulator, is transported to the main system and also compressed. Antihydrogen atoms are then formed by mixing the antiprotons and positrons. The velocity of the anti-atoms, and their binding energies, will strongly depend on the initial conditions of the constituent particles, for example their temperatures and densities, and on the details of the mixing process. In this paper the complete lifecycle of antihydrogen atoms will be presented, starting with the production of the constituent antiparticles and the description of the manipulations necessary to prepare them appropriately for antihydrogen formation. The latter will also be described, as will the possible fates of the anti-atoms.

Cold antihydrogen has been produced at CERN (Amoretti et al. (Nature, 419, 456 (2002)), Gabrielse et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 213401 (2002))), with the aim of performing a high-precision spectroscopic comparison with hydrogen as a test of the CPT symmetry. Hydrogen, a unique system used for the development of quantum mechanics and quantum electrodynamics, has been continuously used to produce high-precision tests of theories and measurements of fundamental constants and can lead to a very sensitive search for CPT violation. After the initial production of cold antihydrogen atoms by the ATHENA group, the ALPHA Collaboration ( http://alpha.web.cern.ch/ ) has set forth on an experiment to trap and perform high-resolution laser spectroscopy on the 1S-2S transition of both atoms. In this contribution, we will review the motivations, goals, techniques, and recent developments towards this fundamental physics test. We present new discussion on predicted lineshapes for the 1S-2S spectroscopy of trapped atoms in a regime not discussed before.

A microchannel plate (MCP)/phosphor screen assembly has been used to destructively measure the radial profile of cold, confined antiprotons, electrons, and positrons in the ALPHA experiment, with the goal of using these trapped particles for antihydrogen creation and confinement. The response of the MCP to low energy (10-200 eV

We report results from a novel diagnostic that probes the outer radial profile of trapped antiproton clouds. The diagnostic allows us to determine the profile by monitoring the time-history of antiproton losses that occur as an octupole field in the antiproton confinement region is increased. We show several examples of how this diagnostic helps us to understand the radial dynamics of antiprotons in normal and nested Penning-Malmberg traps. Better understanding of these dynamics may aid current attempts to trap antihydrogen atoms. We report results from a novel diagnostic that probes the outer radial profile of trapped antiproton clouds. The diagnostic allows us to determine the profile by monitoring the time-history of antiproton losses that occur as an octupole field in the antiproton confinement region is increased. We show several examples of how this diagnostic helps us to understand the radial dynamics of antiprotons in normal and nested Penning-Malmberg traps. Better understanding of these dynamics may aid current attempts to trap antihydrogen atoms.

We discuss aspects of antihydrogen studies, that relate to particle physics ideas and techniques, within the context of the ALPHA experiment at CERN's Antiproton Decelerator facility. We review the fundamental physics motivations for antihydrogen studies, and their potential physics reach. We argue that initial spectroscopy measurements, once antihydrogen is trapped, could provide competitive tests of CPT, possibly probing physics at the Planck Scale. We discuss some of the particle detection techniques used in ALPHA. Preliminary results from commissioning studies of a partial system of the ALPHA Si vertex detector are presented, the results of which highlight the power of annihilation vertex detection capability in antihydrogen studies., Invited talk at Pbar08 - Workshop on Cold Antimatter Plasmas and Application to Fundamental Physics, Okinawa, Japan, 2008. 14 pages, 8 figures

We demonstrate temporally controlled modulation of cold antihydrogen production by periodic RF heating of a positron plasma during antiproton-positron mixing in a Penning trap. Our observations have established a pulsed source of atomic antimatter, with a rise time of about 1 s, and a pulse length ranging from 3 to 100 s. Time-sensitive antihydrogen detection and positron plasma diagnostics, both capabilities of the ATHENA apparatus, allowed detailed studies of the pulsing behavior, which in turn gave information on the dependence of the antihydrogen production process on the positron temperature T. Our data are consistent with power law scaling T (-1.1+/-0.5) for the production rate in the high temperature regime from approximately 100 meV up to 1.5 eV. This is not in accord with the behavior accepted for conventional three-body recombination.

Control of the radial profile of trapped antiproton clouds is critical to trapping antihydrogen. We report the first detailed measurements of the radial manipulation of antiproton clouds, including areal density compressions by factors as large as ten, 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. Control of the radial profile of trapped antiproton clouds is critical to trapping antihydrogen. We report the first detailed measurements of the radial manipulation of antiproton clouds, including areal density compressions by factors as large as ten, 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 have demonstrated production of antihydrogen in a 1$,$T solenoidal magnetic field. This field strength is significantly smaller than that used in the first generation experiments ATHENA (3$,$T) and ATRAP (5$,$T). The motivation for using a smaller magnetic field is to facilitate trapping of antihydrogen atoms in a neutral atom trap surrounding the production region. We report the results of measurements with the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus) device, which can capture and cool antiprotons at 3$,$T, and then mix the antiprotons with positrons at 1$,$T. We infer antihydrogen production from the time structure of antiproton annihilations during mixing, using mixing with heated positrons as the null experiment, as demonstrated in ATHENA. Implications for antihydrogen trapping are discussed. We have demonstrated production of antihydrogen in a 1$,$T solenoidal magnetic field. This field strength is significantly smaller than that used in the first generation experiments ATHENA (3$,$T) and ATRAP (5$,$T). The motivation for using a smaller magnetic field is to facilitate trapping of antihydrogen atoms in a neutral atom trap surrounding the production region. We report the results of measurements with the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser PHysics Apparatus) device, which can capture and cool antiprotons at 3$,$T, and then mix the antiprotons with positrons at 1$,$T. We infer antihydrogen production from the time structure of antiproton annihilations during mixing, using mixing with heated positrons as the null experiment, as demonstrated in ATHENA. Implications for antihydrogen trapping are discussed.

In the last three years of data taking, the ATHENA experiment at the CERN Antiproton Decelerator facility has been able to produce large amounts of antihydrogen atoms and to study the formation process in detail. Moreover, in 2004, ATHENA tried to produce antihydrogen by means of laser stimulation. In this contribution we summarize the main results obtained and the progress made in analysing the results of the laser experiment.

We have demonstrated storage of plasmas of the charged constituents of the antihydrogen atom, antiprotons and positrons, in a Penning trap surrounded by a minimum-B magnetic trap designed for holding neutral antiatoms. The neutral trap comprises a superconducting octupole and two superconducting, solenoidal mirror coils. We have measured the storage lifetimes of antiproton and positron plasmas in the combined Penning-neutral trap, and compared these to lifetimes without the neutral trap fields. The magnetic well depth was 0.6 T, deep enough to trap ground state antihydrogen atoms of up to about 0.4 K in temperature. We have demonstrated that both particle species can be stored for times long enough to permit antihydrogen production and trapping studies.

An observation of a clear dependence of antihydrogen production on positron plasma shapes is reported. For this purpose a plasma control method has been developed combining the plasma rotating-wall technique with a mode diagnostic system. With the help of real-time and nondestructive observations, the rotating-wall parameters have been optimized. The positron plasma can be manipulated into a wide range of shapes (aspect ratio 6.5{

Antihydrogen can be synthesized by mixing antiprotons and positrons in a Penning trap environment. Here an experiment to stimulate the formation of antihydrogen in the n = 11 quantum state by the introduction of light from a CO2 continuous wave laser is described. An overall upper limit of 0.8% with 90% C.L. on the laser-induced enhancement of the recombination has been found. This result strongly suggests that radiative recombination contributes negligibly to the antihydrogen formed in the experimental conditions used by the ATHENA Collaboration.

We have investigated an extension of the buffer gas cooling technique to a non-neutral buffer gas. The proposed scheme will allow efficient mass-selective centering of ions confined in a Penning trap in situations where the use of a neutral damping agent is not possible. The present paper reviews the principle of the technique and reports on evidence for sideband cooling of antiprotons in an electron gas, obtained with the ATHENA apparatus at CERN's Antiproton Decelerator facility.

ALPHA is an international project that has recently begun experimentation at CERN's Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility. The primary goal of ALPHA is stable trapping of cold antihydrogen atoms with the ultimate goal of precise spectroscopic comparisons with hydrogen. We discuss the status of the ALPHA project and the prospects for antihydrogen trapping., Invited talk at International Conference on Trapped Charged Particles and Fundamental Physics: TCP06, Parksville, BC, Canada, September 2006. To be published in Hyperfine Interactions

The creation of cold antihydrogen by the ATHENA and ATRAP collaborations, working at CERN’s unique Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility, has ushered in a new era in atomic physics. This contribution will briefly review recent results from the ATHENA experiment. These include discussions of antiproton slowing down in a cold positron gas during antihydrogen formation, information derived on the dependence of the antihydrogen formation rate upon the temperature of the stored positron plasma and, finally, upon the spatial distribution of the emitted anti-atoms. We will discuss the implications of these studies for the major outstanding goal of trapping samples of antihydrogen for precise spectroscopic comparisons with hydrogen. The physics motivations for undertaking these challenging experiments will be briefly recalled.

Antihydrogen is formed when antiprotons are mixed with cold positrons in a nested Penning trap. We present experimental evidence, obtained using our antihydrogen annihilation detector, that the spatial distribution of the emerging antihydrogen atoms is independent of the positron temperature and axially enhanced. This indicates that antihydrogen is formed before the antiprotons are in thermal equilibrium with the positron plasma. This result has important implications for the trapping and spectroscopy of antihydrogen.

We have developed a new method, based on the ballistic transfer of preaccumulated plasmas, to obtain large and dense positron plasmas in a cryogenic environment. The method involves transferring plasmas emanating from a region with a low magnetic field (0.14 T) and relatively high pressure (${10}^{\ensuremath{-}9}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mbar}$) into a 15 K Penning-Malmberg trap immersed in a 3 T magnetic field with a base pressure better than ${10}^{\ensuremath{-}13}\text{ }\text{ }\mathrm{mbar}$. The achieved positron accumulation rate in the high field cryogenic trap is more than one and a half orders of magnitude higher than the previous most efficient UHV compatible scheme. Subsequent stacking resulted in a plasma containing more than $1.2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{9}$ positrons, which is a factor 4 higher than previously reported. Using a rotating wall electric field, plasmas containing about $20\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{6}$ positrons were compressed to a density of $2.6\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{10}\text{ }\text{ }{\mathrm{cm}}^{\ensuremath{-}3}$. This is a factor of 6 improvement over earlier measurements.

The ALPHA experiment aims to trap antihydrogen as the next crucial step towards a precise CPT test, by a spectroscopic comparison of antihydrogen with hydrogen. The experiment will retain the salient techniques developed by the ATHENA collaboration during the previous phase of antihydrogen experiments at the antiproton decelerator (AD) at CERN. The collaboration has identified the key problems in adding a neutral antiatom trap to the previously developed experimental configuration. The solutions identified by ALPHA are described in this paper.

Atomic systems of antiparticles are the laboratories of choice for tests of CPT symmetry with antimatter. The ATHENA experiment was the first to report the production of copious amounts of cold antihydrogen in 2002. This article reviews some of the insights that have since been gained concerning the antihydrogen production process as well as the external and internal properties of the produced anti-atoms. Furthermore, the implications of those results on future prospects of symmetry tests with antimatter are discussed. Atomic systems of antiparticles are the laboratories of choice for tests of CPT symmetry with antimatter. The ATHENA experiment was the first to report the production of copious amounts of cold antihydrogen in 2002. This article reviews some of the insights that have since been gained concerning the antihydrogen production process as well as the external and internal properties of the produced anti-atoms. Furthermore, the implications of those results on future prospects of symmetry tests with antimatter are discussed. Atomic systems of antiparticles are the laboratories of choice for tests of CPT symmetry with antimatter. The ATHENA experiment was the first to report the production of copious amounts of cold antihydrogen in 2002. This article reviews some of the insights that have since been gained concerning the antihydrogen production process as well as the external and internal properties of the produced anti-atoms. Furthermore, the implications of those results on future prospects of symmetry tests with antimatter are discussed.

In 2002, the ATHENA collaboration reported the creation and detection of cold (~15 K) antihydrogen atoms [1]. The observation was based on the complete reconstruction of antihydrogen annihilations, simultaneous and spatially correlated annihilations of an antiproton and a positron. Annihilation byproducts are measured with a cylindrically symmetric detector system consisting of two layers of double sided Si-micro-strip modules that are surrounded by 16 rows of 12 pure CsI crystals (13 x 17.5 x 17 mm^3). This paper gives a brief overview of the experiment, the detector system, and event reconstruction. Reference 1. M. Amoretti et al., Nature 419, 456 (2002)., 7 pages, 5 figures; Proceedings for the 8th ICATPP Conference on Astroparticle, Particle, Space Physics, Detectors and Medical Physics Applications (Como, Italy October 2003) to be published by World Scientific (style file included)

We demonstrate three-dimensional annihilation imaging of antiprotons trapped in a Penning trap. Exploiting unusual feature of antiparticles, we investigate a previously unexplored regime in particle transport; the proximity of the trap wall. Particle loss on the wall, the final step of radial transport, is observed to be highly non-uniform, both radially and azimuthally. These observations have considerable implications for the production and detection of antihydrogen atoms., Comment: Invited Talk at NNP03, Workshop on Non-Neutral Plasmas, 2003

We demonstrate three-dimensional imaging of antiprotons in a Penning trap, by reconstructing annihilation vertices from the trajectories of the charged annihilation products. The unique capability of antiparticle imaging has allowed, for the first time, the observation of the spatial distribution of the particle loss in a Penning trap. The radial loss of antiprotons on the trap wall is localized to small spots, strongly breaking the azimuthal symmetry expected for an ideal trap. Our observations have important implications for detection of antihydrogen annihilations.

We demonstrate cooling of 10 4 antiprotons in a dense, cold plasma of ∼10 8 positrons, confined in a nested cylindrical Penning trap at about 15 K. The time evolution of the cooling process has been studied in detail, and several distinct types of behavior identified. We propose explanations for these observations and discuss the consequences for antihydrogen production. We contrast these results with observations of interactions between antiprotons and “hot” positrons at about 3000 K, where antihydrogen production is strongly suppressed.

In the ATHENA experiment, which has recently produced and detected cold antihydrogen, the antiatoms formation is performed by mixing two cold (meV) charged clouds of positrons and antiprotons. The antihydrogen production is strictly dependent on positron plasma parameters. For this purpose we developed a new system to investigate such properties in a non-destructive way. The method is based upon the measurement of the plasma response under a frequency sweep RF excitation and its subsequent analysis. Plasmas trapped in Penning trap exhibit typical resonant collective modes characterized by frequencies, amplitudes and widths dependent on the particle number, density, spatial extent and temperature. With this system it is so possible to have a real-time monitor of the plasma during antihydrogen production.