We report a determination of the antiproton magnetic moment, measured in a three-body system, independent of previous experiments. We present results from a systematic study of the hyperfine (HF) structure of antiprotonic helium where we have achieved a precision more than a factor of 10 better than our first measurement. A comparison between the experimental results and three-body quantum electrodynamic (QED) calculations leads to a new value for the antiproton magnetic moment is -2.7862 (83) nuclear magnetons, which agrees with the magnetic moment of the proton within 2.9 x 10e-3.
A full quantum mechanical calculation of partial cross-sections leading to different final states of antiprotonic helium atom was performed. Calculations were carried out for a wide range of antiprotonic helium states and incident (lab) energies of the antiproton.
The state dependent quenching mechanism of metastable antiprotonic He atoms by contaminants is suggested to explain existing experimental data. The effect of antiproton transfer from the antiprotonic He to noble gas contaminants is shown to play a significant role. Preliminary estimations have been done in the framework of the coupled channels model. The obtained results support the idea of strong dependence of quenching cross-sections on the antiprotonic states quantum numbers and enable to explain qualitatively existing discrepancies between experimental results, obtained for different conta…
Antiprotonic helium, a neutral exotic three-body system consisting of a helium nucleus, an electron and an antiproton, is being studied at the Antiproton Decelerator of CERN by the ASAUCSA collaboration. Using laser spectroscopy of the energy levels of the antiproton in this system and comparison to theory, a value of the antiproton-to-electron mass ratio with an error of 3 ppb could be obtained. This result agrees with the most precise measurement of the value of the proton and allows us to extract a limit of the equality of the proton and antiproton charge and mass of 2 ppb. Using microwave …
Recent progress in the spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium has allowed for measuring the separation between components of the hyperfine structure (HFS) of the (37,35) metastable states with an accuracy of 300 MHz, equivalent to a relative accuracy of 3x10^{-5}. The analysis of the uncertainties of the available theoretical results on the antiprotonic helium HFS shows that the accuracy of the value of the dipole magnetic moment of the antiproton (currently known to only 0.3 %) may be improved by up to 2 orders of magnitude by measuring the splitting of appropriately selected components of the H…
Heretofore undiscovered spin-0 or spin-1 bosons can mediate exotic spin-dependent interactions between standard-model particles. Here we carry out the first search for semileptonic spin-dependent interactions between matter and antimatter. We compare theoretical calculations and spectroscopic measurements of the hyperfine structure of antiprotonic helium to constrain exotic spin- and velocity-dependent interactions between electrons and antiprotons.
The spectrum of the (L_i^3 + p-bar + 2e) four-body system was calculated in an adiabatic approach. The two-electron energies were approximated by a sum of two single-electron effective charge two-center energies as suggested in [6]. While the structure of the spectrum does not exclude the existence of long-lived states, their experimental observability is still to be clarified.
Using a newly developed laser-microwave-laser resonance method, we observed a pair of microwave transitions between hyperfine levels of the $(n,L)=(37,35)$ state of antiprotonic helium. This experiment confirms the quadruplet hyperfine structure due to the interaction of the antiproton orbital angular momentum, the electron spin and the antiproton spin as predicted by Bakalov and Korobov. The measured frequencies of $ν_{\text HF}^+ =12.89596 \pm 0.00034$ GHz and $ν_{\text HF}^- =12.92467 \pm 0.00029$ GHz agree with recent theoretical calculations on a level of $ 6 \times10^{-5}$.
A systematic study of the decay rates of antiprotonic helium (\pbhef and \pbhet) at CERN AD (Antiproton Decelerator) has been made by a laser spectroscopic method. The decay rates of some of its short-lived states, namely those for which the Auger rates $γ_{\mathrm{A}}$ are much larger than their radiative decay rates ($γ_{\mathrm{rad}} \sim 1$ $μ$s$^{-1}$), were determined from the time distributions of the antiproton annihilation signals induced by laser beams, and the widths of the atomic resonance lines. The magnitude of the decay rates, especially their relation with the transition multip…
We report on preliminary results from a systematic study of the hyperfine (HF) structure of antiprotonic helium. This precise measurement which was commenced in 2006, has now been completed. Our initial analysis shows no apparent density or power dependence and therefore the results can be averaged. The statistical error of the observable M1 transitions is a factor of 60 smaller than that of three body quantum electrodynamic (QED) calculations, while their difference has been resolved to a precision comparable to theory (a factor of 10 better than our first measurement). This difference is sen…
In this work we describe the latest results for the measurements of the hyperfine structure of antiprotonic helium-3. Two out of four measurable super-super-hyperfine SSHF transition lines of the (n,L)=(36,34) state of antiprotonic helium-3 were observed. The measured frequencies of the individual transitions are 11.12548(08) GHz and 11.15793(13) GHz, with an increased precision of about 43% and 25% respectively compared to our first measurements with antiprotonic helium-3 [S. Friedreich et al., Phys. Lett. B 700 (2011) 1--6]. They are less than 0.5 MHz higher with respect to the most recent t…
We report the first measurements of the inelastic spin exchange collision rate between the Hyperfine (HF) levels of antiprotonic helium. We measure the time dependent evolution of the (37, 35) substates to obtain an inelastic collision rate which qualitatively agrees with recent theoretical calculations. We evaluate these results by using the obtained rate as a parameter in a rigorous simulation which we then compare to to previously measured data. We find that our measurement slightly underestimates the collision rate and therefore conclude that the actual value most probably falls within the…
The shift and broadening of the resonance lines in spectrum of the antiprotonic helium atoms $\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{+}$ located in fluid and superfluid $^4$He have been calculated. The contributions to the shift and broadening from collective degrees of freedom in liquid $^4$He have been estimated using the phenomenological response function. Effects due to the interaction of $\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{+}$ with a single $^4$He atom have been calculated in the quasistatic approximation using the experimental pair correlation function. It has been shown that an implanted $\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{+}$ atom es…
A consistent quantum mechanical calculation of partial cross-sections leading to different final states of antiprotonic helium atom was performed. For the four-body scattering wave function, corresponding to the initial state, as well as for the antiprotonic helium wave function, appearing in the final tate, adiabatic approximations was used. Calculations were carried out for a wide range of antiprotonic helium states and incident energies of the antiproton. Obtained energy dependances of some cross sections show a rich low energy structure.
We have estimated the shift and broadening of the resonance lines in the spectrum of antiprotonic helium atoms $\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{+}$ implanted in solid helium $^4$He. The application of the response function for crystalline helium has enabled determination of the contributions from the collective degrees of freedom to the shift and broadening. It occurs that the broadening due to the collective motion is negligible compared to the natural line width. The available pair-correlation functions for crystalline $^4$He have been applied for estimating the resonance-line shift due to collisions of…
The long range interaction between an antiprotonic helium atom $\bar{p}$He$^+$ and helium atom in its ground state is studied. We calculate the dispersion coefficients $C_6$ using the Complex Coordinate Rotation (CCR) formalism in order to comply with the resonant nature of metastable states of the antiprotonic helium. We present as well numerical data on static dipole polarizabilities of antiprotonic helium states. The obtained coefficients $C_6$ may be used to estimate the collisional shift and broadening of transition lines in a low density precision spectroscopy of the antiprotonic helium.
We present improved theoretical calculations of transition frequencies for the fundamental transitions $(L\!=\!0,v\!=\!1)\to(L'\!=\!0,v'\!=\!0)$ in the hydrogen molecular ions H$_2^+$ and HD$^+$ with a relative uncertainty $4\cdot10^{-11}$ and for the two-photon transitions in the antiprotonic helium atom with a relative uncertainty $10^{-10}$. To do that, the one-loop self-energy correction of order $α(Zα)^6$ is derived in the two Coulomb center approximation, and numerically evaluated in the case of the aforementioned transitions. The final results also include a complete set of other spin-i…
We develop a numerical method to calculate the Bethe logarithm for resonant states. We use the Complex Coordinate Rotation (CCR) formalism to describe resonances as time-independent Schrödinger solutions. To get a proper expression for the Bethe logarithm we apply the generalization of the second order perturbation theory to an isolated CCR eigenstate. Using the developed method we perform a systematic calculation of the Bethe logarithm for metastable states in the antiprotonic helium He$^+\bar{p}\,$ atoms with precision of 7--8 significant digits. We also recalculate the nonrelativistic energ…
Numerical ab initio variational calculations of the transition probabilities and ac Stark shifts in two-photon transitions of antiprotonic helium atoms driven by two counter-propagating laser beams are presented. We found that sub-Doppler spectroscopy is in principle possible by exciting transitions of the type (n,L)->(n-2,L-2) between antiprotonic states of principal and angular momentum quantum numbers n~L-1~35, first by using highly monochromatic, nanosecond laser beams of intensities 10^4-10^5 W/cm^2, and then by tuning the virtual intermediate state close (e.g., within 10-20 GHz) to the r…
We consider a neutralization of excited antiprotonic helium ion accompanied by antiproton transitions to lower states in collisions with helium atoms $(\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{2+})_{nl} + \mathrm{He} \rightarrow \left[ (\bar{p}\mathrm{He}^{2+})_{n_f l_f} e\right]_{1s} + \mathrm{He}^+$ in low-temperature medium. Interactions in the input and output channels are taken similar to the potentials of $\mathrm{H}^+ - \mathrm{He}$ ($X^1Σ$) and $\mathrm{H} - \mathrm{He}^+$ ($A^1Σ$) systems, respectively. The final term is shifted down by the antiproton transition energy. Therefore initial and final terms c…
Collisions of metastable antiprotonic helium atoms with atoms of the medium induce, among other processes, transitions between hyperfine structure (HFS) states, as well as shifts and broadening of microwave M1 spectral lines. In order to obtain matrix potential of interaction between $(\mathrm{\bar{p} He} ^+)$ and $\mathrm{He}$, we have calculated the potential energy surface (PES) in the framework of unrestricted Hartree-Fock method taking into account electron correlations in the second-order perturbation theory (MP2). With this potential, the system of close-coupling equations for HFS chann…
We report the initial results from a systematic study of the hyperfine (HF) structure of antiprotonic helium (n,l) = (37,~35) carried out at the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN. We performed a laser-microwave-laser resonance spectroscopy using a continuous wave (cw) pulse-amplified laser system and microwave cavity to measure the HF transition frequencies. Improvements in the spectral linewidth and stability of our laser system have increased the precision of these measurements by a factor of five and reduced the line width by a factor of three compared to our previous results. A compariso…
This paper describes measurements of the hyperfine structure of two antiprotonic atoms that are planned at the Antiproton Decelerator (AD) at CERN. The first part deals with antiprotonic helium, a three-body system of alpha-particle, antiproton and electron that was previously studied at LEAR. A measurement will test existing three-body calculations and may - through comparison with these theories - determine the magnetic moment of the antiproton more precisely than currently available, thus providing a test of CPT invariance. The second system, antihydrogen, consisting of an antiproton and a …
Physical laws are believed to be invariant under the combined transformations of charge, parity and time reversal (CPT symmetry). This implies that an antimatter particle has exactly the same mass and absolute value of charge as its particle counterpart. Metastable antiprotonic helium ($\bar{p}{\rm He}^+$) is a three-body atom consisting of a normal helium nucleus, an electron in its ground state and an antiproton ($\bar{p}$) occupying a Rydberg state with high principal and angular momentum quantum numbers, respectively $n$ and $\ell$, such that $n\sim\ell\sim 38$. These atoms are amenable to…
We extend the results of Bakalov D., B.Jeziorski, T.Korona, K.Szalewicz, E.Tchoukova, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 84} (2000) 2350, on one-photon electric dipole transition line shift and broadening to the case of two-photon transitions. As an example we consider the laser induced transition in antiprotonic helium produced in helium gas target. The transition is between antiprotonic helium states $(n,l)=(33,32)$ and $(31,30)$. PACS 32.70.Jz, 34.20.Gj, 36.10.-k
Quantum calculation of the collision-induced line-shape effects in antiprotonic helium and the new accurate ab initio $\bar{p}$He$^{+}$-He potential energy surface
The effect of the strong $\bar{\rm p}$-p nuclear interaction in a three-charge-particle system with arbitrary masses is investigated. Specifically, the ($\bar{\rm p},\ μ^-$,\ p) system is considered, where $\bar{p}$ is an antiproton, $μ^-$ is a muon and p is a proton. A numerical computation in the framework of a detailed few-body approach is carried out for the following protonium (antiprotonic hydrogen) formation three-body reaction: $\bar{p} + H_μ(1s) \rightarrow (\bar{p} p)_α + μ^-$. Here, $H_μ(1s)$ is a ground state muonic hydrogen, i.e. a bound state of p and $μ^-$. A bound state of $p$ …
The Antiproton Decelerator of CERN began operation in 1999 to serve experiments for studies of CPT invariance by precision laser and microwave spectroscopy of antihydrogen ($\bar{\rm H}$) and antiprotonic helium ($\bar{p}{\rm He}^+$). The first 12 years of operation saw cold $\bar{\rm H}$ synthesized by overlapping clouds of positrons ($e^+$) and antiprotons ($\bar{p}$) confined in magnetic Penning traps. Cold $\bar{\rm H}$ was also produced in collisions between Rydberg positronium atoms and $\bar{p}$. Ground-state $\bar{\rm H}$ was later trapped for up to $\sim 1000$ s in a magnetic bottle t…
