Search

Presently the most popular way to prepare high quality polarized antiproton beams is the so called spin filter method. The feasibility of the method has been proven for a proton beam and measurements of the spin dependent interaction of antiprotons have been proposed by the PAX collaboration. Another well known source for polarized antiprotons is the $\bar{\Lambda}$ decay which was used at FERMILAB in the only experiment performed so far with polarized antiprotons. An alternative approach for polarized antiproton beams may be the production process itself. If the produced antiprotons show polarization it would be rather simple to handle a polarized antiproton beam in the existing antiproton collector and cooler at CERN just like in the unpolarized case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ATRAP (antihydrogen trap collaboration) at CERN (European organization for nuclear research) has developed a completely new, larger and more robust apparatus in the second experimental zone. The antiproton annihilation detector system consists of 10 layers of scintillating fibers, counts the antihydrogen atoms and determines the annihilation vertex of the atoms. This diagnostic element will allow to optimize the production of cold antihydrogen sufficiently to permit the optical observations and measurements. Using this new apparatus thousands of antihydrogen atoms have been produced within a combined Penning-loffe trap. These observed antihydrogen atoms resolve a debate about whether positrons and antiprotons can be brought together to form antihydrogen atoms within the divergent magnetic fields of a quadrupole loffe trap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]