Enhanced anti-hydrogen ion production

TL;DR

This paper proposes a scheme to significantly increase anti-hydrogen ion production in the GBAR experiment by optimizing the timing and bunching of anti-protons, supported by detailed simulations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to enhance anti-hydrogen ion yield through anti-proton bunching and debunching techniques, improving experimental efficiency.

Findings

Potential tenfold increase in anti-ion production rate

Effective bunching of anti-protons improves temporal overlap

Debunching preserves ion quality during capture

Abstract

The production of anti-hydrogen ions in the GBAR experiment will occur via a two step charge exchange process. In a first reaction, the anti-protons from the ELENA ring at CERN will capture a positron from a positronium target producing anti-hydrogen atoms. Those interacting in the same positronium target will produce in a second step anti-hydrogen ions. This results in a dependence for the anti-ions production rate which is roughly proportional to the positronium density squared. We present a scheme to increase the anti-ions production rate in the GBAR experiment by tailoring the anti-proton to the positron pulse in order to maximise the temporal overlap of Ps and anti-protons. Detailed simulations show that an order of magnitude could be gained by bunching the anti-protons from ELENA. In order to avoid losses in their capture in the Paul trap due to the energy spread introduced by the bunching, debunching with a symmetrical inverted pulse can be applied to the anti-hydrogen ions.