Collaborative Research: Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Plasma Physics of Antihydrogen Generation and Trapping

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The long-term goals of this research address the very basis of our understanding of the world around us. Potentially, it has deep implications on the nature of particle interactions, on the question of matter-antimatter symmetry, and on cosmology. At the same time, this research is uniquely visible because the study of antimatter is accessible and fascinating to the public. Antihydrogen experiments are sufficiently simple that they can be comprehended in their entirety by graduate students. Consequently, they offer students a broad education. Experimental students learn beam and plasma physics, experimental planning and design, instrumentation, electronics, cryogenics, magnetics and software development. Along with theory development, theory students can make critical contributions to the design, operation, and analysis of the experiments. The relative accessibility of the material makes it easy to integrate undergraduate students into both the experimental and theoretical program. The research includes significant participation by members of underrepresented groups.The research is primarily focused on the immediate plasma and atomic physics issues surrounding improving the trapping of antihydrogen, and on the design of a third generation trap optimized for gravitational research. The physics issues will be studied with experiments at Berkeley and at CERN, with classical trajectory Monte Carlo, molecular dynamics, Vlasov codes and 3D Particle-In-Cell codes, and with analytic theory. Some of the questions that will be addressed include: achieving improved (lower) lepton and antiproton temperatures; studying how leptons interact with the background radiation field; studying how leptons interact with resonant cavities; improved plasma diagnostics; and improved mixing of positrons and antiprotons, so that more of the resultant antihydrogen can be held in a very shallow neutral trap. While the motivation for seeking answers to these questions comes from antihydrogen research, many of these questions raise novel and deep issues in plasma and atomic physics. This research is co-sponsored by the NSF's Physics Division and the Office of International Science and Engineering.