Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Antimatter and Gravity (WAG 2013); University of Bern, Switzerland, 13-15 November 2013; Editors: Claude Amsler and Paola ScampoliOpen Access

Quantum reflection of antihydrogen in the GBAR experiment

Gabriel Dufour

Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel, CNRS, ENS, UPMC, Campus Jussieu, F-75252 Paris, France

Presenter.

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Romain Guérout

Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel, CNRS, ENS, UPMC, Campus Jussieu, F-75252 Paris, France

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Astrid Lambrecht

Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel, CNRS, ENS, UPMC, Campus Jussieu, F-75252 Paris, France

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Valery Nesvizhevsky

Institut Laue-Langevin (ILL), 6 rue Jules Horowitz, F-38042, Grenoble, France

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Serge Reynaud

Laboratoire Kastler-Brossel, CNRS, ENS, UPMC, Campus Jussieu, F-75252 Paris, France

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, and

Alexei Voronin

P. N. Lebedev Physical Institute, 53 Leninsky prospect, Ru-117924 Moscow, Russia

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https://doi.org/10.1142/S2010194514602658Cited by:2 (Source: Crossref)

Abstract

In the GBAR experiment, cold antihydrogen atoms will be left to fall on an annihilation plate with the aim of measuring the gravitational acceleration of antimatter. Here, we study the quantum reflection of these antiatoms due to the Casimir-Polder potential above the plate. We give realistic estimates of the potential and quantum reflection amplitudes, taking into account the specificities of antihydrogen and the optical properties of the plate. We find that quantum reflection is enhanced for weaker potentials, for example above thin slabs, graphene and nanoporous media.

This is an Open Access article published by World Scientific Publishing Company. It is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (CC-BY) License. Further distribution of this work is permitted, provided the original work is properly cited.

Keywords:

PACS: 36.10.Gv, 34.35.+a, 04.80.Cc

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