Sympathetic cooling of protons and antiprotons with a common endcap Penning trap

Abstract

We present an experiment to sympathetically cool single protons and antiprotons in a Penning trap by resonantly coupling the particles to laser cooled beryllium ions using a common endcap technique. Our analysis shows that preparation of (anti)protons at mK temperatures on timescales of tens of seconds is feasible. Successful implementation of the technique will have immediate and significant impact on high-precision comparisons of the fundamental properties of protons and antiprotons. This in turn will provide stringent tests of the fundamental symmetries of the Standard Model.

Keywords:

• CPT symmetry
• Penning trap
• proton
• antiproton
• laser cooling

Notes

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft, by RIKEN Initiative Research Unit Program, RIKEN Pioneering Project Funding, RIKEN FPR Funding, the RIKEN JRA Program, the Max-Planck Society and by the EU (Marie Sklodowska-Curie [grant number 721559]).