Simulated optical molasses cooling of trapped antihydrogen

TL;DR

This paper models and simulates the cooling process of antihydrogen using optical molasses, revealing unique challenges due to antihydrogen's properties and the importance of phase space mixing for effective cooling.

Contribution

It provides a detailed theoretical and computational analysis of antihydrogen cooling with optical molasses, updating previous results for current ALPHA experiment capabilities.

Findings

Antihydrogen does not exhibit standard cooling in optical molasses due to its small mass.

Cooling in all directions requires phase space mixing within the trap.

Laser intensity significantly influences the cooling efficiency.

Abstract

We theoretically and computationally investigate the cooling of antihydrogen, $\bar{H}$, using optical molasses cooling. This updates the results in Ref. [1] to the current capabilities of the ALPHA experiment. Through Monte Carlo simulation, we show that $\bar{H}$s do not give the standard cooling even in an ideal optical molasses because of their small mass and large transition frequency. For optical molasses cooling in the ALPHA trap, the photons are constrained to travel in one direction only. It is only through the phase space mixing in the trap that cooling in all directions can be achieved. We explore the nontrivial role that laser intensity plays in the cooling. We also investigate the possibility for simultaneously cooling atoms in either of the trapped ground states.