Trapped antihydrogen in its ground state

Abstract

Antihydrogen atoms (H̄) are confined in an Ioffe trap for 15-1000s-long enough to ensure that they reach their ground state. Though reproducibility challenges remain in making large numbers of cold antiprotons (p̄) and positrons (e+) interact, 5±1 simultaneously confined ground-state atoms are produced and observed on average, substantially more than previously reported. Increases in the number of simultaneously trapped H̄ are critical if laser cooling of trapped H̄ is to be demonstrated and spectroscopic studies at interesting levels of precision are to be carried out. © 2012 Published by the American Physical Society.