Laser stimulated deexcitation of Rydberg antihydrogen atoms

Antihydrogen atoms are routinely formed at CERN in a broad range of Rydberg states. Ground-state anti-atoms, those useful for precision measurements, are eventually produced through spontaneous decay. However given the long lifetime of Rydberg states the number of ground-state antihydrogen atoms usable is small, in particular for experiments relying on the production of a beam of antihydrogen atoms. Therefore, it is of high interest to efficiently stimulate the decay in order to retain a higher fraction of ground-state atoms for measurements. We propose a method that optimally mixes the high angular momentum states with low ones enabling to stimulate, using a broadband frequency laser, the deexcitation toward low-lying states, which then spontaneously decay to ground-state. We evaluated the method in realistic antihydrogen experimental conditions. For instance, starting with an initial distribution of atoms within the $n=20-30$ manifolds, as formed through charge exchange mechanism, we show that more than 80\% of antihydrogen atoms will be deexcited to the ground-state within 100 ns using a laser producing 2 J at 828 nm.Comment: 10 page

Experimental perspectives on the matter-antimatter asymmetry puzzle: developments in electron EDM and antihydrogen experiments

In the search for clues to the matter-antimatter puzzle, experiments with atoms or molecules play a particular role. These systems allow measurements with very high precision, as demonstrated by the unprecedented limits down to $10^{-30}$ e.cm on electron EDM using molecular ions, and relative measurements at the level of $10^{-12}$ in spectroscopy of antihydrogen atoms. Building on these impressive measurements, new experimental directions offer potentials for drastic improvements. We review here some of the new perspectives in those fields and their associated prospects for new physics searches

An atomic hydrogen beam to test ASACUSA's apparatus for antihydrogen spectroscopy

The ASACUSA collaboration aims to measure the ground state hyperfine splitting (GS-HFS) of antihydrogen, the antimatter pendant to atomic hydrogen. Comparisons of the corresponding transitions in those two systems will provide sensitive tests of the CPT symmetry, the combination of the three discrete symmetries charge conjugation, parity, and time reversal. For offline tests of the GS-HFS spectroscopy apparatus we constructed a source of cold polarised atomic hydrogen. In these proceedings we report the successful observation of the hyperfine structure transitions of atomic hydrogen with our apparatus in the earth's magnetic field.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figures, proceedings for conference EXA 2014 (Exotic Atoms - Vienna

Design of new resonant haloscopes in the search for the dark matter axion: A review of the first steps in the RADES collaboration

With the increasing interest in dark matter axion detection through haloscopes, in which different international groups are currently involved, the RADES group was established in 2016 with the goal of developing very sensitive detection systems to be operated in dipole magnets. This review deals with the work developed by this collaboration during its first five years: from the first designs—based on the multi-cavity concept, aiming to increase the haloscope volume, and thereby improve sensitivity—to their evolution, data acquisition design, and finally, the first experimental run. Moreover, the envisaged work within RADES for both dipole and solenoid magnets in the short and medium term is also presented.This work has been funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) under projects FPA-2016-76978-C3-2-P (supported by the grant FPI BES-2017-079787) and PID2019-108122GB-C33, and was supported by the CERN Doctoral Studentship programme. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council under grant ERC-2018-StG-802836 (AxScale project). IGI acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant ERC-2017-AdG-788781 (IAXO+ project)

Scalable haloscopes for axion dark matter detection in the 30 µeV range with RADES

RADES (Relic Axion Detector Exploratory Setup) is a project with the goal of directly searching for axion dark matter above the 30μeV scale employing custom-made microwave filters in magnetic dipole fields. Currently RADES is taking data at the LHC dipole of the CAST experiment. In the long term, the RADES cavities are envisioned to take data in the BabyIAXO magnet. In this article we report on the modelling, building and characterisation of an optimised microwave-filter design with alternating irises that exploits maximal coupling to axions while being scalable in length without suffering from mode-mixing. We develop the mathematical formalism and theoretical study which justifies the performance of the chosen design. We also point towards the applicability of this formalism to optimise the MADMAX dielectric haloscopes.We thank Ciaran O’Hare for his generous and publicly available compilation of axion bounds https://github.com/cajohare /AxionLimits/. This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad – Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) under project FPA-2016-76978, and was supported by the CERN Doctoral Studentship programme. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council and BD, JG and SAC acknowledge support through the European Research Council under grant ERC-2018-StG-802836 (AxScale project). IGI acknowledges also support from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant ERC-2017-AdG-788781 (IAXO+ project). JR has been supported by the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship 2012-10597, the grant PGC2018-095328-B-I00(FEDER/Agencia estatal de investigaci´on) and FSE-DGA2017-2019-E12/7R (Gobierno de Aragón/FEDER) (MINECO/FEDER), the EU through the ITN “Elusives” H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015/674896 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant SFB-1258 as a Mercator Fellow. CPG was supported by PROMETEO II/2014/050 of Generalitat Valenciana, FPA2014-57816-P of MINECO and by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreements 690575 and 674896. AM is supported by the European Research Council under Grant No. 742104. We wish also to thank our colleagues at CAST and at CERN, in particular Marc Thiebert from the coating lab, Sergio Calatroni for many useful discussions, as well as the whole team of the CERN Central Cryogenic Laboratory for their support and advice in specific aspects of the project

The PIENU experiment at TRIUMF : a sensitive probe for new physics

Study of rare decays is an important approach for exploring physics beyond the Standard Model (SM). The branching ratio of the helicity suppressed pion decays, R = , is one of the most accurately calculated decay process involving hadrons and has so far provided the most stringent test of the hypothesis of electron-muon universality in weak interactions. The branching ratio has been calculated in the SM to better than 0.01% accuracy to be R SM = 1.2353(1) × 10 . The PIENU experiment at TRIUMF, which started taking physics data in September 2009, aims to reach an accuracy five times better than the previous experiments, so as to confront the theoretical calculation at the level of ±0.1%. If a deviation from the RSM is found, "new physics" beyond the SM, at potentially very high mass scales (up to 1000 TeV), could be revealed. Alternatively, sensitive constraints on hypotheses can be obtained for interactions involving pseudoscalar or scalar interactions. So far, 4 million π + → e+ νe ue events have been accumulated by PIENU. This paper will outline the physics motivations, describe the apparatus and techniques designed to achieve high precision and present the latest results

First results of the CAST-RADES haloscope search for axions at 34.67 μeV

We present results of the Relic Axion Dark-Matter Exploratory Setup (RADES), a detector which is part of the CERN Axion Solar Telescope (CAST), searching for axion dark matter in the 34.67μeV mass range. A radio frequency cavity consisting of 5 sub-cavities coupled by inductive irises took physics data inside the CAST dipole magnet for the first time using this filter-like haloscope geometry. An exclusion limit with a 95% credibility level on the axion-photon coupling constant of gaγ & 4 × 10−13 GeV−1 over a mass range of 34.6738μeV < ma < 34.6771μeV is set. This constitutes a significant improvement over the current strongest limit set by CAST at this mass and is at the same time one of the most sensitive direct searches for an axion dark matter candidate above the mass of 25μeV. The results also demonstrate the feasibility of exploring a wider mass range around the value probed by CAST-RADES in this work using similar coherent resonant cavitiesWe wish to thank our colleagues at CERN, in particular Marc Thiebert from the coating lab, as well as the whole team of the CERN Central Cryogenic Laboratory for their support and advice in speci c aspects of the project. We thank Arefe Abghari for her contributions as the project's summer student during 2018. This work has been funded by the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigacion (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) under project FPA-2016-76978-C3-2-P and PID2019-108122GB-C33, and was supported by the CERN Doctoral Studentship programme. The research leading to these results has received funding from the European Research Council and BD, JG and SAC acknowledge support through the European Research Council under grant ERC-2018-StG-802836 (AxScale project). BD also acknowledges fruitful discussions at MIAPP supported by DFG under EXC-2094 { 390783311. IGI acknowledges also support from the European Research Council (ERC) under grant ERC-2017-AdG-788781 (IAXO+ project). JR has been supported by the Ramon y Cajal Fellowship 2012-10597, the grant PGC2018-095328-B-I00(FEDER/Agencia estatal de investigaci on) and FSE-GA2017-2019-E12/7R (Gobierno de Aragón/FEDER) (MINECO/FEDER), the EU through the ITN \Elusives" H2020-MSCA-ITN-2015/674896 and the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft under grant SFB-1258 as a Mercator Fellow. CPG was supported by PROMETEO II/2014/050 of Generalitat Valenciana, FPA2014-57816-P of MINECO and by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreements 690575 and 674896. AM is supported by the European Research Council under Grant No. 742104. Part of this work was performed under the auspices of the US Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under Contract No. DE-AC52-07NA27344

Study of Pi plus → e plus Nu e decay

The pion branching ratio (R^π = [formula omitted] ) is an auspicious observable for a test of the standard model of particle physics (SM). Rπ has been calculated within this framework with high precision because the strong interaction dynamics cancel out in the ratio and the structure dependence only appears through electroweak corrections. Since the discovery of the electronic pion decay in 1958, Rπ was measured with increasing precision and confirmed the SM value of RπSM = 1.2352(2) x 10⁻⁴. However, the current experimental precision is 20 times worse than the theoretical one leaving a large window for potential new physics at “high-mass" scales (up to ∽1000 TeV). The PIENU experiment aims at measuring Rπ with an improved precision by a factor larger than 5 over the previous experiment at TRIUMF (Rπexp = (1.2265 ± 0:0056) x 10⁻⁴) in order to confront the theoretical prediction at the 0.1% level. The result presented in this thesis focuses on a fraction of the data taken since the beginning of physics data taking in 2009. A blind analysis has been implemented in order to avoid a human bias. With this set of data, the procedure is established for the final analysis. An improvement by a factor 1.17, dominated by statistical uncertainty, has been reached in the branching ratio precision. If added to the current Particle Data Group value, the result of this analysis reduces the uncertainty on the branching ratio by ∽25%.Science, Faculty ofPhysics and Astronomy, Department ofGraduat

Stimulated decay and formation of antihydrogen atoms

Antihydrogen atoms are routinely formed at the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN in a wide range of Rydberg states. To perform precision measurements, experiments rely on ground-state antimatter atoms which are currently obtained only after spontaneous decay. In order to enhance the number of atoms in ground state, we propose and assess the efficiency of different methods to stimulate their decay. First, we investigate the use of THz radiation to simultaneously couple all n-manifolds down to a low-lying one with sufficiently fast spontaneous emission toward ground state. We further study a deexcitation scheme relying on state mixing via microwave and/or THz light and a coupled (visible) deexcitation laser. We obtain close to unity ground-state fractions within a few tens of μs for a population initiated in the n=30 manifold. Finally, we study how the production of antihydrogen atoms via stimulated radiative recombination can favorably change the initial distribution of states and improve the overall number of ground-state atoms when combined with stimulated deexcitation.Antihydrogen atoms are routinely formed at the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN in a wide range of Rydberg states. To perform precision measurements, experiments rely on ground state antimatter atoms which are currently obtained only after spontaneous decay. In order to enhance the number of atoms in ground state, we propose and assess the efficiency of different methods to stimulate their decay. First, we investigate the use of THz radiation to simultaneously couple all n-manifolds down to a low lying one with sufficiently fast spontaneous emission toward ground state. We further study a deexcitation scheme relying on state-mixing via microwave and/or THz light and a coupled (visible) deexcitation laser. We obtain close to unity ground state fractions within a few tens of microseconds for a population initiated in the n=30 manifold. Finally, we study how the production of antihydrogen atoms via stimulated radiative recombination can favourably change the initial distribution of states and improve the overall number of ground-state atoms when combined with the stimulated deexcitation proposed

Stimulated decay and formation of antihydrogen atoms

Antihydrogen atoms are routinely formed at the Antiproton Decelerator at CERN in a wide range of Rydberg states. To perform precision measurements, experiments rely on ground state antimatter atoms which are currently obtained only after spontaneous decay. In order to enhance the number of atoms in ground state, we propose and assess the efficiency of different methods to stimulate their decay. At first, we investigate the use of THz radiation to simultaneously couple all n-manifolds down to a low lying one with sufficiently fast spontaneous emission toward ground state. We further study a deexcitation scheme relying on state-mixing via microwave and/or THz light and a coupled (visible) deexcitation laser. We obtain close to unity ground state fractions within a few tens of microseconds for a population initiated in the n=30 manifold. Finally, we study how the production of antihydrogen atoms via stimulated radiative recombination can favourably change the initial distribution of states and improve the overall number of ground-state atoms when combined with the stimulated deexcitation proposed