164 research outputs found
Antihydrogen formation dynamics in a multipolar neutral anti-atom trap
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
Search For Trapped Antihydrogen
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 figure
Effect of Resting Patterns of Tamarins (Saguinus fuscicollis and Saguinus mystax) on the Spatial Distribution of Seeds and Seedling Recruitment
The spatial distributions of dispersed seeds have important evolutionary consequences for plants. Repeated defecations in sites frequently used by seed dispersers can result in high seed concentrations. We observed the resting behavior of a mixed-species group of tamarins in Peru and recorded the occurrence of seed dispersal (over 8 mo) and seed fate (over 11–22 mo) to determine whether the location and use of resting sites influenced the spatial distribution of dispersed seeds and seedlings. The tamarins rested mostly on trees (Saguinus fuscicollis: 60.6%, S. mystax: 89.2%) and dead trunks (S. fuscicollis: 24.4%) and used 61% of their resting sites repeatedly. During both the dry and wet seasons, tamarins dispersed significantly more seeds within resting areas (0.00662 and 0.00424 seeds/m2, respectively) than outside them (0.00141 and 0.00181 seeds/m2). Seed survival and seedling recruitment did not differ significantly between resting and other areas, resulting in a higher seedling concentration around the resting sites. Seed density did not increase with the duration or the frequency of use of the resting sites but did increase when we pooled the seasonal resting sites together in 50 m × 50 m quadrats, ultimately causing a clumped distribution of dispersed seeds. The use of resting sites in secondary forest, particularly during the dry season, allows the creation of seedling recruitment centers for species coming from the primary forest. Our findings show that tamarin resting behavior affects the spatial distribution of dispersed seeds and seedlings, and their resting sites play an important role in plant diversity maintenance and facilitate forest regeneration in degraded areas
Production of antihydrogen at reduced magnetic field for anti-atom trapping
We have demonstrated production of antihydrogen in a 1T solenoidal
magnetic field. This field strength is significantly smaller than that used in
the first generation experiments ATHENA (3T) and ATRAP (5T). 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 3T, and then
mix the antiprotons with positrons at 1T. 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
Alpha Antihydrogen Experiment
ALPHA is an experiment at CERN, whose ultimate goal is to perform a precise
test of CPT symmetry with trapped antihydrogen atoms. After reviewing the
motivations, we discuss our recent progress toward the initial goal of stable
trapping of antihydrogen, with some emphasis on particle detection techniques.Comment: Invited talk presented at the Fifth Meeting on CPT and Lorentz
Symmetry, Bloomington, Indiana, June 28-July 2, 201
Antihydrogen and mirror-trapped antiproton discrimination: Discriminating between antihydrogen and mirror-trapped antiprotons in a minimum-B trap
Recently, antihydrogen atoms were trapped at CERN in a magnetic minimum
(minimum-B) trap formed by superconducting octupole and mirror magnet coils.
The trapped antiatoms were detected by rapidly turning off these magnets,
thereby eliminating the magnetic minimum and releasing any antiatoms contained
in the trap. Once released, these antiatoms quickly hit the trap wall,
whereupon the positrons and antiprotons in the antiatoms annihilated. The
antiproton annihilations produce easily detected signals; we used these signals
to prove that we trapped antihydrogen. However, our technique could be
confounded by mirror-trapped antiprotons, which would produce
seemingly-identical annihilation signals upon hitting the trap wall. In this
paper, we discuss possible sources of mirror-trapped antiprotons and show that
antihydrogen and antiprotons can be readily distinguished, often with the aid
of applied electric fields, by analyzing the annihilation locations and times.
We further discuss the general properties of antiproton and antihydrogen
trajectories in this magnetic geometry, and reconstruct the antihydrogen energy
distribution from the measured annihilation time history.Comment: 17 figure
Centrifugal separation and equilibration dynamics in an electron-antiproton plasma
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
A novel antiproton radial diagnostic based on octupole induced ballistic loss
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
Compression of Antiproton Clouds for Antihydrogen Trapping
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
Trapped antihydrogen
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 ∼1T (∼0.5K 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 172ms and then released—the first instance of a purely antimatter atomic system confined for any length of time (Andresen etal., 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 etal. (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 1,000s in the apparatus (Andresen etal., 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 stat
- …