SMuK 2023 – wissenschaftliches Programm

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HK: Fachverband Physik der Hadronen und Kerne

HK 43: Fundamental Symmetries II

HK 43.4: Vortrag

Mittwoch, 22. März 2023, 17:00–17:15, SCH/A252

Upgrading antihydrogen production in AEḡIS — •Saiva Huck — CERN, Meyrin, Switzerland — University of Hamburg, Inst. f. Experimental Physics, Hamburg, Germany

The AEḡIS (Antimatter Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy) collaboration, based at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator (AD) complex, produces antihydrogen atoms in the form of a pulsed, isotropic source with a precisely defined production time. H is formed by means of a charge exchange reaction: antiprotons are captured from the AD inside a Penning-Malmberg trap, further sympathetically cooled with electrons, and then combined with positronium atoms, which are previously laser-excited to Rydberg states.

The focus of research in AEḡIS is on the formation of a pulsed horizontal beam of H atoms utilized to investigate their vertical deflection due to the influence of gravity, thereby probing the Weak Equivalence Principle for antimatter and providing a test of the CPT theorem.

Since the first H formation in 2018, AEḡIS has undergone several significant upgrades aimed at improving the efficiency of antihydrogen production and fully benefiting from the newly added ELENA (Extra Low ENergy Antiproton) decelerator at the AD, which commenced operation in fall of 2021 and yields antiprotons in larger numbers at lower energies. Subsequently, work is being undertaken to re-establish H production, in larger numbers, and move towards beam formation.

This contribution gives an overview of the improvements to the AEḡIS setup, results obtained during the first beam times with ELENA, and progress towards the formation of a pulsed H beam.