Status of the AEgIS experiment

by Pauline Yzombard (Laboratoire Aime Cotton CNRS (FR))

Wednesday 25 Jan 2017, 14:30 → 15:15 Europe/Zurich

26-1-22 (CERN)

The primary goal of AEgIS is to perform a gravity test with a cold antihydrogen (Hbar) beam. AEgIS proposes to create such a cold beam based on a charge exchange reaction between cold trapped antiprotons (pbar) and excited (Rydberg) Positronium (Ps):

Ps* + pbar → e^– + Hbar*

The Ps atom is the bound state of an electron and its antiparticle the positron: Ps = (e^– + e⁺).

Last years, great efforts have been made for gathering all the ingredients needed for the charge-exchange reaction:

• the catching of a dense and cold antiproton plasma in a 1 T multi-rings Penning trap
• the formation of Ps atoms, and efficient laser excitation of the Ps cloud

I will present the recent progress we made on the two above-mentioned points.

To open the discussion, I will introduce one of the projects we are developing, which aims to improve the antihydrogen formation in AEgIS: sympathetic cooling of antiprotons using laser-cooled molecular anions (C₂^–).

abstract_ISOLDE_yzombard.pdf

seminar_isolde.pptx