CERN Accelerating science

Article
Title	Sympathetic cooling of positrons to cryogenic temperatures for antihydrogen production
Author(s)	Baker, C J (Swansea U.) ; Bertsche, W (Manchester U. ; Cockcroft Inst. Accel. Sci. Tech. ; Liverpool U.) ; Capra, A (TRIUMF) ; Cesar, C L (Rio de Janeiro Federal U.) ; Charlton, M (Swansea U.) ; Mathad, A Cridland (Swansea U.) ; Eriksson, S (Swansea U.) ; Evans, A (Calgary U.) ; Evetts, N (British Columbia U.) ; Fabbri, S (Manchester U.) ; Fajans, J (UC, Berkeley) ; Friesen, T (Calgary U.) ; Fujiwara, M C (TRIUMF) ; Grandemange, P (TRIUMF) ; Granum, P (Aarhus U.) ; Hangst, J S (Aarhus U.) ; Hayden, M E (Simon Fraser U., Burnaby (main)) ; Hodgkinson, D (Manchester U.) ; Isaac, C A (Swansea U.) ; Johnson, M A (Manchester U.) ; Jones, J M (Swansea U.) ; Jones, S A (Aarhus U.) ; Jonsell, S (Stockholm U. ; Stockholm U., OKC) ; Kurchaninov, L (TRIUMF) ; Madsen, N (Swansea U.) ; Maxwell, D (Swansea U.) ; McKenna, J T K (Aarhus U.) ; Menary, S (York U., Canada) ; Momose, T (British Columbia U.) ; Mullan, P (Swansea U.) ; Olchanski, K (TRIUMF) ; Olin, A (TRIUMF) ; Peszka, J (Swansea U.) ; Powell, A (Calgary U.) ; Pusa, P (Liverpool U.) ; Rasmussen, C Ø (CERN) ; Robicheaux, F (Purdue U.) ; Sacramento, R L (Rio de Janeiro Federal U.) ; Sameed, M (Manchester U.) ; Sarid, E (Soreq Nucl. Res. Ctr. ; Ben Gurion U. of Negev) ; Silveira, D M (Rio de Janeiro Federal U.) ; Stutter, G (Aarhus U.) ; So, C (Calgary U.) ; Tharp, T D (Marquette U.) ; Thompson, R I (Calgary U.) ; van der Werf, D P (Swansea U.) ; Wurtele, J S (UC, Berkeley)
Publication	2021
Number of pages	8
In:	Nature Commun. 12 (2021) 6139
DOI	10.1038/s41467-021-26086-1
Subject category	Detectors and Experimental Techniques
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.
Copyright/License	publication: © 2021-2024 The Author(s) (License: CC-BY-4.0)

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