304 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
Model for a Universe described by a non-minimally coupled scalar field and interacting dark matter
In this work it is investigated the evolution of a Universe where a scalar
field, non-minimally coupled to space-time curvature, plays the role of
quintessence and drives the Universe to a present accelerated expansion. A
non-relativistic dark matter constituent that interacts directly with dark
energy is also considered, where the dark matter particle mass is assumed to be
proportional to the value of the scalar field. Two models for dark matter
pressure are considered: the usual one, pressureless, and another that comes
from a thermodynamic theory and relates the pressure with the coupling between
the scalar field and the curvature scalar. Although the model has a strong
dependence on the initial conditions, it is shown that the mixture consisted of
dark components plus baryonic matter and radiation can reproduce the expected
red-shift behavior of the deceleration parameter, density parameters and
luminosity distance.Comment: 11 pages and 6 figures. To appear in GR
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
Detection of antihydrogen annihilations with a Si-micro-strip and pure CsI detector
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).Comment: 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
First Production and Detection of Cold Antihydrogen Atoms
The ATHENA experiment recently produced the first atoms of cold antihydrogen.
This paper gives a brief review of how this was achieved.Comment: Invited talk at Int. Conf. on Low Energy Antiprotons 2003 (LEAP03),
to be published in NIM
The First Cold 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.Comment: Invitated Talk at COOL03, International Workshop on Beam Cooling and
Related Topics, to be published in NIM
On the Low Surface Magnetic Field Structure of Quark Stars
Following some of the recent articles on hole super-conductivity and related
phenomena by Hirsch \cite{H1,H2,H3}, a simple model is proposed to explain the
observed low surface magnetic field of the expected quark stars. It is argued
that the diamagnetic moments of the electrons circulating in the electro-sphere
induce a magnetic field, which forces the existing quark star magnetic flux
density to become dilute. We have also analysed the instability of
normal-superconducting interface due to excess accumulation of magnetic flux
lines, assuming an extremely slow growth of superconducting phase through a
first order bubble nucleation type transition.Comment: 24 pages REVTEX, one .eps figure, psfig.sty is include
- …