Quantum reflection of antihydrogen from a liquid helium film
We study the quantum reflection of ultracold antihydrogen atoms bouncing on the surface of a liquid helium film. The Casimir-Polder potential and quantum reflection are calculated for different thicknesses of the film supported by different substrates. Antihydrogen can be protected from annihilation...
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Veröffentlicht in: | Europhysics letters 2017-08, Vol.119 (3), p.33001 |
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Hauptverfasser: | , , , , , , , |
Format: | Artikel |
Sprache: | eng |
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Zusammenfassung: | We study the quantum reflection of ultracold antihydrogen atoms bouncing on the surface of a liquid helium film. The Casimir-Polder potential and quantum reflection are calculated for different thicknesses of the film supported by different substrates. Antihydrogen can be protected from annihilation for as long as 1.3 s on a bulk of liquid 4He, and 1.7 s for liquid 3He. These large lifetimes open interesting perspectives for spectroscopic measurements of the free fall acceleration of antihydrogen. Variation of the scattering length with the thickness of a film of helium shows interferences which we interpret through a Liouville transformation of the quantum reflection problem. |
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ISSN: | 0295-5075 1286-4854 |
DOI: | 10.1209/0295-5075/119/33001 |