Spectrometry of Captured Highly Charged Ions Produced Following Antiproton Annihilations

2025/10/09 by F. P. Gustafsson, Gustafsson, F. P., Marco Volponi +124
Chemistry · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Annihilation #Antiproton #Argon #Atomic Physics (physics.atom-ph) #Atomic and Molecular Physics #FOS: Physical sciences #Helium #Ion #Ion-surface interactions and analysis #Mass Spectrometry Techniques and Applications #Mass spectrometry #Nuclear Experiment (nucl-ex) #Trapping

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2510.08440

published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)

openalex publication_date 2025/10/09 · openalex created_date 2025/10/18 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

We report a proof-of-principle study demonstrating the first capture and time-of-flight spectrometry of highly charged ions (HCIs) produced following antiproton annihilations in a Penning-Malmberg trap. A multi-step nested-trap technique was developed using the \aegis experiment to identify annihilation-linked captured ions. The trapping and spectrometry of helium and argon ions demonstrates the approach. This work establishes a foundation for the in-trap synthesis of radioactive HCIs and the study of cold nuclear annihilation fragments, with the long-term goal of enabling a sensitive tool for probing the outer nuclear periphery.

Citations

• A high-voltage MR-ToF mass spectrometer and separator for the study of exotic isotopes at FRIB
• All-Order Wichmann and Kroll Contribution in Heavy Electronic and Exotic Atoms
• Antiprotonic atoms with nonperturbative inclusion of vacuum polarization and finite nuclear mass
• Charge Radii Measurements of Exotic Tin Isotopes in the Proximity of N=50 and N=82
• Role of the isovector spin-orbit potential in mitigating the CREX-PREX dilemma
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• Towards metrology with highly charged isomeric ions from antiproton annihilation
• Antiproton annihilation at rest in thin solid targets and comparison with Monte Carlo simulations
• Penning-trap measurement of the Q-value of the electron capture in ¹⁶³Ho for the determination of the electron neutrino mass
• Production of hypernuclei from antiproton capture within a relativistic transport model
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Related

• Half-life Measurements of Highly Charged Radioisotopes by Nuclear Recoil in a Penning Trap
• First Observation of Antiproton Annihilation At Rest on Argon in the LArIAT Experiment
• Annihilation Vertex Reconstruction Algorithm with Single-Layer Timepix4 Detectors
• Production of hypernuclei from antiproton capture within a relativistic transport model
• First Use of High Charge States for Mass Measurements of Short-Lived Nuclides in a Penning Trap