Laser-cooling assisted antihydrogen trapping

What is it about?

Antihydrogen can only be trapped when colder than half a degree above absolute zero. However, making antihydrogen requires antiprotons that are only made in energic collisions (billions of electronvolts). It is therefore until now only possible to trap a few atoms at a time (about two every 20 minutes at best). We propose a new method to increase the trapping by an order of magnitude by using laser-cooling to cool Beryllium ions that in turn will cool the positrons, and in turn the antiprotons.

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Why is it important?

Detailed studies of antihydrogen may well reveal why the Universe is made almost entirely of matter, or help elucidate why Einstein's general relativity and quantum mechanics are not compatible. Antihydrogen may help, as unprecedented details can be studies using techniques developed in part for atomic clocks - but to do this likely requires much more antihydrogen than is available now. This study builds on years of experience in trapping and comes at a time when the first studies are ongoing.