Production of Slow Protonium in Vacuum
Abstract
We describe how protonium, the quasi-stable antiproton-proton bound system, has been synthesized following the interaction of antiprotons with the molecular ion H2+ in a nested Penning trap environment. From a careful analysis of the spatial distributions of antiproton annihilation events in the ATHENA experiment, evidence is presented for protonium production with sub-eV kinetic energies in states around n = 70, with low angular momenta. This work provides a new 2-body system for study using laser spectroscopic techniques.
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