Toward Antihydrogen Spectroscopy

Abstract

ATRAP’s new experimental apparatus is successfully commissioned and used to synthesize and capture antihydrogen atoms. While the number trapped per trial, 5 ± 2, is about the same as our yield in 2011, the rate of antiproton use is a factor of three lower, and the length of a trial is cut in half. A more robust apparatus, the use of smaller radius plasmas, and plasma imaging all contribute. Simulations I built and ran on Harvard’s Odyssey cluster focus on both Lyman-α laser cooling and 1S-2S spectroscopy of trapped antihydrogen, using the laser systems available at ATRAP. These show how laser cooling can reduce average atomic energies by more than an order of magnitude in tens of minutes. Spectroscopy of the 1S-2S line requires similar amounts of time, and laser cooling preceding spectroscopy narrows the observed spectral width close to that seen in hydrogen beam experiments. The computational work points the way to efficient ATRAP laser experiments. Precise 1S-2S spectroscopy on antihydrogen, an important test of CPT symmetry, is within reach.