The AEgIS experiment at the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN focuses on the synthesis of antihydrogen via a resonant charge-exchange reaction between Rydberg-excited positronium, a bound state of an electron and a positron, and cold antiprotons, with the aim of performing a precise test of the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) for antimatter. The apparatus is capable of trapping, cooling and manipulating 100 keV antiprotons delivered by ELENA, as well as other charged species such as positrons, electrons, and both positive and negative ions of different atoms. These features allow one to perform nuclear physics experiments using matter and antimatter simultaneously.
In this seminar, I will introduce the physics of antiprotonic atoms, exotic atoms in which an antiproton replaces one of the electrons, and discuss why they are of particular interest. In particular, I will show how they can be used to characterise the nuclear periphery, to synthesise nuclei and their isomers through annihilation, and to study the strong interaction between antiprotons and the nucleus, similarly to other exotic atoms. I will then present the latest results on the synthesis of antiprotonic atoms in AEgIS. Finally, I will outline the long-term programme, which includes the physics of antineutrons and antideuterons, Pontecorvo reactions, in which the annihilation occurs on several nucleons simultaneously, and the synthesis of deeply bound states such as the proposed sexaquark (uuddss).