Formation of a Dense Gas of Positronium

这项工作是一个多步骤项目的开始，该项目的长期目标是证明基于稠密气体中正电子的湮灭辐射的湮灭光子激光器的存在。前三年的具体目标是：1)压缩一个被困在磁场中的冷的、自旋排列的、非中性的正电子等离子体，使其接近布里渊极限。提取正电子，并在短时间脉冲中将它们聚焦到样品上的一个微观点；2)通过形成和观察双正电子分子Ps2，证明了高正电子表面密度的存在。Ps2产率的密度依赖性可以解释为Ps2相对于两个自由Ps原子的结合能和表面吸收Ps2的容纳或粘附系数SPs2；3)在空腔内形成高密度三重态Ps气体。研究工作将伴随着教育工作，本科生将参与兼职工作，创建适合于鼓励高中生在科学领域工作的演示实验，并创建一个高中水平的关于“反物质”的互动互联网网站，最终允许远程实时参与演示实验。

This effort is the beginning of a multi-step project that has the long-term goal of demonstrating the existence of an annihilation photon laser based on annihilation radiation from positronium in a dense gas. The specific goals of the first three years are: 1) Compress a cold, spin-aligned, non-neutral plasma of positrons trapped in a magnetic field to near the Brillouin limit. Extract the positrons and focus them to a microscopic spot on a sample in a short time pulse; 2) Demonstrate the existence of a high positron surface density by forming and observing the di-positronium molecule, Ps2. The density dependence of the Ps2 yield may be interpreted to give the binding energy of Ps2 relative to two free Ps atoms and the accommodation or sticking coefficient SPs2 for Ps2 absorption at the surface; and 3) Form a gas of high-density triplet Ps within a cavity. The research efforts will be accompanied by an educational effort in which undergraduate students will be involved in part time work creating demonstration experiments suitable for encouraging high school students to work in scientific fields and creating a high school level interactive internet web site on "Antimatter" to eventually permit remote real time participation in demonstration experiments.