European Conference on Trapped Ions (ECTI)

A hybrid system combining ultracold atoms and ions can be a valuable tool for studying the properties of atom-ion collisions in the ultracold regime. In free space, atoms and ions cannot be bound in an elastic binary collision due to energy and momentum conservation. However, since the ion is strongly trapped, the trap can couple the center-of-mass and relative motion and lead to a short-lived...

Precision measurements of time-reversal (T) symmetry violation in molecular systems provide stringent tests of new physics beyond the Standard Model. Recent measurements of the electron’s electric dipole moment (eEDM) in both neutral molecules [1] and molecular ions [2] have excluded a broad parameter space of T-violating leptonic physics at energy scales up to ~10 TeV. To improve the...

Quantum tunneling reactions play an important role in chemistry when classical pathways are energetically forbidden [1]. Binary collisions of atomic with molecular hydrogen belong to the most fundamental molecular systems and are simple enough to be theoretically investigated using first-principle calculations. The rate of the tunneling reaction H$_2$ + D$^- \rightarrow$ H$^-$ + HD has been...

The molecular hydrogen ion $\mathrm{H}_{2}^{+}$ is the simplest molecule. This iconic system has been the subject of innumerous theoretical studies, from the earliest days of quantum mechanics [1] until today, culminating in highly precise predictions of its level energies [2]. Comparisons of these predictions and measured vibrational transition frequencies would offer excellent opportunities...

ALPHA works with trapped antihydrogen atoms to investigate some of its properties and compare it to its matter counterpart, hydrogen. These atoms are created by slowly mixing antiprotons and positrons in one of our Penning-Malmberg traps. There is strong evidence that positron temperature before mixing greatly influences the number of trappable antihydrogen atoms. [1]

Using laser ablation,...