Thanks, Pete,
Interesting how similar some of this process is to present day
astronomy. Like trying to zero in on distant planets orbiting round
their colossal suns. Like in the following excerpt from your posted site:/
For example, researchers can point lasers and microwaves at the
antiatoms and figure out how the colours of light they shine back
compare to those shone back by hydrogen atoms under the same
circumstances, Fujiwara said./
/Aiming the lasers and microwaves precisely at the antiatoms using the
right settings is very difficult right after the antiatoms are formed
because they are in what's called an excited state — the positrons are
orbiting the nucleus of the antiatom, but they're very far away, and
they're constantly changing their orbit./
/Over time, they reach a stable orbit close to the nucleus known as the
"ground state." That allows the lasers and microwaves to be aimed with
high precision. Theoretical calculations show that after several
minutes, the antiatoms should all be in the ground state.
/
*Natalia*/
/
On 6/7/2011 1:51 PM, pete wrote:
I like this link:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/story/2011/06/06/science-antimatter-atoms-fujiwara-antihydrogen.html
That's our lab, where Makoto is talking, from 0:45 to 1:06, and I
walked through yesterday to find them filming there. In fact I'm
typing this from directly upstairs.
Anyway, alas I can't take any credit for contributions to the latest
work. The mark II version of the apparatus removed the detectors which
we whipped together for them in desperate last minute flurry a few
years ago, replacing them with fancy high resolution solid state
(silicon) detectors. And with my work in Japan, and now with the
new electron beamline, I haven't been available to do anything for
them, but at the same time, they currently have no need for our
detectors. So I've been somewhat out of touch, but I'm going to
catch up in about half an hour, as Makoto is going to give a talk
about the new paper.
A few points, though, on the current paper. Although the trap is
able to hold the atoms for up to 15 minutes, they are still creating
many more which they lose immediately. The numbers are better, but
still very small: they now create about 6000 H-bar per sequence,
and lose essentially all of them to anihilation immediately
(with an energy release of around 1.8 �Joules). The trap then
holds no more than 2 or 3 atoms, and those tend to be lost over
the next few minutes, so that not many trials show any remaining
after 15 minutes. There's lots of work to go yet before there's
enough there long enough to do some of the more interesting tests.
One advantage of the anihilation energy, though, is that there
are some things that can be done with these tiny quantities, and
even one atom will give a nice robust signal when it anihilates,
so you can see where and when that happens. I'll know more about
there plans in an hour or two.
-Pete
On Mon, 6 Jun 2011, D and N wrote:
Congratulations to Pete and his team, again!
Hope you approve of this link.
Natalia
http://genevalunch.com/blog/2011/06/06/cern-loves-1000-new-lhc-record-and-antimatter-caught-for-1000-seconds/
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