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Spectrometry of captured highly charged ions produced following antiproton annihilations

F. P. Gustafsson1,*, M. Volponi1, J. Zielinski2, A. Asare3, I. Hwang4, S. Alfaro Campos5,6, M. Auzins3, D. Bhanushali5, A. Bhartia5,7 et al. (AEḡIS Collaboration)

A. Bhartia5,7, M. Berghold8, R. S. Brusa9,10, K. Calik2, A. Camper11, R. Caravita10, F. Castelli12,13,†, G. Cerchiari5,6, S. Chandran14, A. Chehaimi9,10, S. Choudapurkar5, R. Ciuryło15, P. Conte12,13, G. Consolati12,16, M. Doser1, R. Ferguson9,10, M. Germann1, A. Giszczak2, L. T. Glöggler1, Ł. Graczykowski2, M. Grosbart1, F. Guatieri9,10, N. Gusakova1,11, S. Haider1, S. Huck1,17, C. Hugenschmidt8, M. Jakubowska2, M. A. Janik2, G. Kasprowicz18, K. Kempny2, G. Khatri1, A. Kisiel2, Ł. Kłosowski15, G. Kornakov2, V. Krumins1,3, L. Lappo2, A. Linek15, S. Mariazzi9,10, P. Moskal19,20, M. Münster8, P. Pandey19,20, L. Penasa9,10, M. Piwiński15, F. Prelz12, T. Rauschendorfer1,16, B. S. Rawat14,21, B. Rienäcker14, V. Rodin14, H. Sandaker11, S. Sharma19,20, T. Sowiński22, E. Tēberga3, M. Tockner5, C. P. Welsch14,21, M. Zawada15, and N. Zurlo23,24 (AEḡIS Collaboration)

  • 1EP Department, CERN, 1211 Geneva 23, Switzerland
  • 2Faculty of Physics, Warsaw University of Technology, ul. Koszykowa 75, 00-662 Warsaw, Poland
  • 3Department of Physics, University of Latvia, Raina Boulevard 19, LV-1586 Riga, Latvia
  • 4Underwood International College, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
  • 5Department of Physics, University of Siegen, Walter-Flex-Strasse 3, 57072 Siegen, Germany
  • 6Institut für Experimentalphysik, Universität Innsbruck, Technikerstrasse 25/4, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria
  • 7Department of Physics, Université de Genève, 24 rue du Général-Dufour, 1211 Genève 4, Switzerland
  • 8Heinz Maier Leibnitz Zentrum (MLZ), Technical University of Munich, Lichtenbergstraße 1, 85748 Garching, Germany
  • 9Department of Physics, University of Trento, via Sommarive 14, 38123 Povo, Trento, Italy
  • 10TIFPA/INFN Trento, via Sommarive 14, 38123 Povo, Trento, Italy
  • 11Department of Physics, University of Oslo, Sem Sælandsvei 24, 0371 Oslo, Norway
  • 12INFN Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
  • 13Department of Physics “Aldo Pontremoli,” University of Milano, via Celoria 16, 20133 Milano, Italy
  • 14Department of Physics, University of Liverpool, Liverpool L69 3BX, United Kingdom
  • 15Institute of Physics, Faculty of Physics, Astronomy, and Informatics, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun, Grudziadzka 5, 87-100 Torun, Poland
  • 16Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, via La Masa 34, 20156 Milano, Italy
  • 17Institute for Experimental Physics, Universität Hamburg, 22607 Hamburg, Germany
  • 18Faculty of Electronics and Information Technology, Warsaw University of Technology, ul. Nowowiejska 15/19, 00-665 Warsaw, Poland
  • 19Marian Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
  • 20Centre for Theranostics, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland
  • 21The Cockcroft Institute, Daresbury, Warrington WA4 4AD, United Kingdom
  • 22Institute of Physics, Polish Academy of Sciences, Aleja Lotnikow 32/46, PL-02668 Warsaw, Poland
  • 23INFN Pavia, via Bassi 6, 27100 Pavia, Italy
  • 24Department of Civil, Environmental, Architectural Engineering and Mathematics, University of Brescia, via Branze 43, 25123 Brescia, Italy

  • *Contact author: fredrik.parnefjord.gustafsson@cern.ch
  • †Deceased.

Phys. Rev. Research 8, 023202 – Published 22 May, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/gg1j-vtvy

Abstract

We report the first capture and time-of-flight spectrometry of highly charged ions (HCIs) produced following annihilations of trapped antiprotons in a Penning-Malmberg trap. A multistep nested-trap technique was developed at the AEḡIS experiment at CERN to trap and identify the annihilation-linked ions using external scintillators. The successful capture and mass analysis of helium and argon ions confirm the viability of the approach. This proof-of-principle demonstration establishes the foundation for future high-resolution mass spectrometry of recoil-filtered nuclear annihilation fragments. This methodology could enable studies of antiprotonic atom formation and cascade dynamics, allow the in-trap synthesis of radioactive HCIs, and provide a particularly sensitive probe of the neutron-to-proton composition at the outer periphery of the nucleus.

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