Antimatter plasmas and antihydrogen
- Department of Physics, University of California, San Diego, California 92093-0319 (United States)
Recent successes in confining antimatter in the form of positron and antiproton plasmas have created new scientific and technological opportunities. Plasma techniques have been the cornerstone of experimental work in this area, and this is likely to be true for the foreseeable future. Work by a number of groups on trapping antimatter plasmas is summarized, and an overview of the promises and challenges in this field is presented. Topics relating to positron plasmas include the use of positrons to study the unique properties of electron{endash}positron plasmas, the interaction between positrons and ordinary matter, and the laboratory modeling of positron-annihilation processes in interstellar media. The availability of cold, trapped antiprotons and positrons makes possible the production of neutral antimatter in the form of antihydrogen. This is expected to enable precise comparisons of the properties of matter and antimatter, including tests of fundamental symmetries and the measurement of the interaction of antimatter with gravity. {copyright} {ital 1997 American Institute of Physics.}
- OSTI ID:
- 491640
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-961102-; ISSN 1070-664X; TRN: 97:011854
- Journal Information:
- Physics of Plasmas, Vol. 4, Issue 5; Conference: Meeting of the Division of Plasma Physics of the American Physical Society, Denver, CO (United States), 11-15 Nov 1996; Other Information: PBD: May 1997
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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