Magnetic multipole induced zero-rotation frequency bounce-resonant loss in a Penning–Malmberg trap used for antihydrogen trapping

Abstract

In many antihydrogen trapping schemes, antiprotons held in a short-well Penning–Malmberg trap are released into a longer well. This process necessarily causes the bounce-averaged rotation frequency Ω¯r of the antiprotons around the trap axis to pass through zero. In the presence of a transverse magnetic multipole, experiments and simulations show that many antiprotons (over 30% in some cases) can be lost to a hitherto unidentified bounce-resonant process when Ω¯r is close to zero.