Physics with low temperature antiprotons

Abstract

The advent of the new beam cooling techniques and their application to antiproton production has already made possible major advances in high energy physics. These same techniques offer uniquely exciting possibilities for ultralow energy physics. Through a combination of deceleration stages, antiprotons produced at several GeV (where the production cross section is at a maximum) can be made available for experiments at thermal velocities. High precision measurements of the antiproton mass and magnetic moment can be performed. Comparison of these measurements with those for the proton will test the CPT invariance of internal baryon dynamics at an unprecedented level. In addition the gravitational constant for antimatter can be measured for the first time, and to high accuracy. Each of these measurements will provide very important information on the dynamical symmetry between matter and antimatter in our universe. Antiprotons at thermal velocities will also make these fundamental particles available for experiments in condensed matter and atomic physics. The recent speculation that antiprotons may form metastable states in some forms of normal matter could open many new avenues of basic and applied research

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