Sympathetic Cooling of Protons and Antiprotons with a Common Endcap Penning Trap

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to sympathetically cool protons and antiprotons in a Penning trap using laser-cooled beryllium ions via a common endcap, enabling high-precision tests of fundamental symmetries.

Contribution

It introduces a novel technique for cooling (anti)protons in a Penning trap, enhancing precision measurements relevant to fundamental physics.

Findings

Feasibility of cooling (anti)protons to millikelvin temperatures within tens of seconds.

Potential for significant improvements in tests of CPT symmetry and Standard Model predictions.

Implementation could lead to more precise measurements of proton and antiproton properties.

Abstract

We present an experiment to sympathetically cool protons and antiprotons in a Penning trap by resonantly coupling the particles to laser cooled beryllium ions using a common endcap technique. Our analysis shows that preparation of (anti)protons at mK temperatures on timescales of tens of seconds is feasible. Successful implementation of the technique will have immediate and significant impact on high-precision comparisons of the fundamental properties of protons and antiprotons. This in turn will provide some of the most stringent tests of the fundamental symmetries of the Standard Model.