Sympathetic cooling of positrons to cryogenic temperatures for antihydrogen production



Baker, CJ, Bertsche, W, Capra, A, Cesar, CL, Charlton, M, Mathad, A Cridland, Eriksson, S, Evans, A, Evetts, N, Fabbri, S
et al (show 37 more authors) (2021) Sympathetic cooling of positrons to cryogenic temperatures for antihydrogen production. NATURE COMMUNICATIONS, 12 (1). 6139-.

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Abstract

The positron, the antiparticle of the electron, predicted by Dirac in 1931 and discovered by Anderson in 1933, plays a key role in many scientific and everyday endeavours. Notably, the positron is a constituent of antihydrogen, the only long-lived neutral antimatter bound state that can currently be synthesized at low energy, presenting a prominent system for testing fundamental symmetries with high precision. Here, we report on the use of laser cooled Be<sup>+</sup> ions to sympathetically cool a large and dense plasma of positrons to directly measured temperatures below 7 K in a Penning trap for antihydrogen synthesis. This will likely herald a significant increase in the amount of antihydrogen available for experimentation, thus facilitating further improvements in studies of fundamental symmetries.

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Faculty of Science and Engineering > School of Physical Sciences
Depositing User: Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited: 04 Feb 2022 08:23
Last Modified: 18 Jan 2023 21:14
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-26086-1
Open Access URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26086-1
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URI: https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3148153