We report here the first successful synthesis of cold antihydrogen atoms employing a cusp trap, which consists of a superconducting anti-Helmholtz coil and a stack of multiple ring electrodes. This success opens a new path to make a stringent test of the CPT symmetry via high precision microwave spectroscopy of ground-state hyperfine transitions of antihydrogen atoms.

The total cross sections for single ionization of helium and single and double ionization of argon by antiproton impact have been measured in the kinetic energy range from 3 to 25 keV using a new technique for the creation of intense slow antiproton beams. The new data provide benchmark results for the development of advanced descriptions of atomic collisions and we show that they can be used to judge, for the first time, the validity of the many recent theories.

The ASACUSA collaboration developed an ultraslow antiproton beam source, monoenergetic ultraslow antiproton source for high-precision investigation (MUSASHI), consisting of an electromagnetic trap with a liquid He free superconducting solenoid and a low energy antiproton beam transport line. The MUSASHI was capable of trapping and cooling more than 1 Â 10 7 antiprotons and extracting them as an ultraslow antiproton beam with energy of 150-250 eV.

Development of a nondestructive, efficient electric-charge-stripping method is a key requirement for next-generation high-intensity heavy-ion accelerators such as the RIKEN Radioactive-Isotope Beam Factory. A charge stripper employing a low-Z gas is an important candidate applicable to high-intensity uranium beams for replacing carbon-foil strippers. In this study, a high-beam-transmission chargestripping system employing helium gas for 238 U beams injected at 10:8 MeV=u was developed and demonstrated for the first time. The charge-state evolution measured using helium in a thickness range of 0:24-1:83 mg=cm 2 is compared with theoretical predictions. Energy attenuation and energy spread due to the helium stripper are also investigated.

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