Collaborative Research: Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Plasma Physics of Antihydrogen Generation and Trapping

Robicheaux, Francis

关键词: plasma;    antihydrogen;   

DOI  :  10.2172/1072055
RP-ID  :  DOE_FINAL_REP
PID  :  OSTI ID: 1072055

学科分类：原子、分子光学和等离子物理

美国|英语

来源: SciTech Connect

【 摘 要 】

Ever since Dirac predicted the existence of antimatter in 1928, it has excited our collective imagination. Seventy-four years later, two collaborations at CERN, ATHENA and ATRAP, created the first slow antihydrogen. This was a stunning achievement, but the most important antimatter experiments require trapped, not just slow, antihydrogen. The velocity, magnetic moment, and internal energy and state of the antihydrogen depend strongly on how it is formed. To trap antihydrogen, physicists face two broad challenges: (1) Understanding the behavior of the positron and antiprotons plasmas from which the antihydrogen is synthesized; and (2) Understanding the atomic processes by which positrons and antiprotons recombine. Recombination lies on the boundary between atomic and plasma physics, and cannot be studied properly without employing tools from both fields. The proposed collaborative research campaign will address both of these challenges. The collaboration members have unique experience in the relevant fields of experimental and theoretical non-neutral plasma physics, numerical modeling, nonlinear dynamics and atomic physics. This expertise is not found elsewhere amongst antihydrogen researchers. The collaboration members have strong ties already, and seek to formalize them with this proposal. Three of the four PIs are members of the ALPHA collaboration, an international collaboration formed by most of the principal members of the ATHENA collaboration.