Whispering Gallery States of Antihydrogen

TL;DR

This paper theoretically investigates the interference of long-living antihydrogen quantum states near surfaces, proposing a method to study quantum reflection of antiatoms using whispering gallery states, with implications for antimatter surface interactions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to analyze antihydrogen quantum states and proposes a method for precision measurement of quantum reflection phenomena.

Findings

Antihydrogen can form whispering gallery states near surfaces.

Interference of these states can be used to study quantum reflection.

The method enables high-precision surface interaction measurements.

Abstract

We study theoretically interference of the long-living quasistationary quantum states of antihydrogen atoms, localized near a concave material surface. Such states are an antimatter analog of the whispering gallery states of neutrons and matter atoms, and similar to the whispering gallery modes of sound and electro-magnetic waves. Quantum states of antihydrogen are formed by the combined effect of quantum reflection from van der Waals/Casimir-Polder (vdW/CP) potential of the surface and the centrifugal potential. We point out a method for precision studies of quantum reflection of antiatoms from vdW/CP potential; this method uses interference of the whispering gallery states of antihydrogen.