Antihydrogen Formation using Cold Plasmas.

Antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of the hydrogen atom, can be formed by mixing cold samples of antiprotons and positrons. In 2002 the ATHENA collaboration succeeded in the first production of cold antihydrogen. By observing and imaging the annihilation products of the neutral, non-confined, antihydrogen atoms annihilating on the walls of the trap we can observe the production in quasi-real-time and study the dynamics of the formation mechanism. The formation mechanism strongly influences the final state of the formed antihydrogen atoms, important for future spectroscopic comparison with hydrogen. This paper briefly summarizes the current understanding of the antihydrogen formation in ATHENA. © 2004 American Institute of Physics [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]