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Formation of antihydrogen atoms in an ultra-cold positron-antiproton plasma

P. O. Fedichev

physics.atom-pharXiv:physics/9611005

Abstract

We discuss the formation of antihydrogen atoms ( H) in an ultra-cold positron-antiproton plasma. For positron densities np 108 cm-3 the characteristic formation time of stable H is determined by collisional relaxation of highly excited atoms produced in the process of 3-body Thompson recombination. Relying on the mechanisms of ``replacement collisions'' and ``transverse collisional drift'' we find a bottleneck in the relaxation kinetics and analyze the physical consequences of this phenomenon.

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