Trapped Antihydrogen in Its Ground State

TL;DR

This paper reports the successful confinement of antihydrogen atoms in their ground state for extended periods, producing a higher number of trapped atoms than previously achieved, which is vital for future precision experiments.

Contribution

It demonstrates the confinement of multiple ground state antihydrogen atoms for extended durations, advancing the capabilities for precision spectroscopy and laser cooling.

Findings

Produced 5 +/- 1 simultaneously trapped ground state antihydrogen atoms

Achieved confinement times ranging from 15 to 1000 seconds

Enhanced the number of trapped atoms compared to prior experiments

Abstract

Antihydrogen atoms are confined in an Ioffe trap for 15 to 1000 seconds -- long enough to ensure that they reach their ground state. Though reproducibility challenges remain in making large numbers of cold antiprotons and positrons interact, 5 +/- 1 simultaneously-confined ground state atoms are produced and observed on average, substantially more than previously reported. Increases in the number of simultaneously trapped antithydrogen atoms are critical if laser-cooling of trapped antihydrogen is to be demonstrated, and spectroscopic studies at interesting levels of precision are to be carried out.