| Title | Sympathetic cooling of positrons to cryogenic temperatures for antihydrogen production |
| Publication Type | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication | 2021 |
| Authors | Baker, CJ, Bertsche, W, Capra, A, Cesar, CL, Charlton, M, A. Mathad, C, Eriksson, S, Evans, A, Evetts, N, Fabbri, S, Fajans, J, Friesen, T, Fujiwara, MC, Grandemange, P, Granum, P, Hangst, JS, Hayden, ME, Hodgkinson, D, Isaac, CA, Johnson, MA, Jones, JM, Jones, SA, Jonsell, S, Kurchaninov, L, Madsen, N, Maxwell, D, McKenna, JTK, Menary, S, Momose, T, Mullan, P, Olchanski, K, Olin, A, Peszka, J, Powell, A, Pusa, P, Rasmussen, CØ, Robicheaux, F, Sacramento, RL, Sameed, M, Sarid, E, Silveira, DM, Stutter, G, So, C, Tharp, TD, Thompson, RI, van der Werf, DP, Wurtele, JS |
| Journal | Nature Communications |
| Volume | 12 |
| Pagination | 6139 |
| ISBN Number | 2041-1723 |
| Abstract | The positron, the antiparticle of the electron, predicted by Dirac in 1931 and discovered by Anderson in 1933, plays a key role in many scientific and everyday endeavours. Notably, the positron is a constituent of antihydrogen, the only long-lived neutral antimatter bound state that can currently be synthesized at low energy, presenting a prominent system for testing fundamental symmetries with high precision. Here, we report on the use of laser cooled Be+ ions to sympathetically cool a large and dense plasma of positrons to directly measured temperatures below 7 K in a Penning trap for antihydrogen synthesis. This will likely herald a significant increase in the amount of antihydrogen available for experimentation, thus facilitating further improvements in studies of fundamental symmetries. |
| URL | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26086-1 |
| DOI | 10.1038/s41467-021-26086-1 |
