Measurements are presented for the annihilation rates of thermalized positrons in a variety of substances, including noble gases, simple inorganic molecules, hydrocarbons, substituted hydrocarbons, and aromatics. The measurements were performed using trapped clouds of room-temperature positrons, into which substances under test were introduced as low-pressure gases, so that only two-body interactions were involved. These data are compared with other values in the literature, and a compilation of annihilation rates is presented. The measurements illustrate the importance of both chemical composition and the vibrational modes of excitation of the molecules in determining the annihilation rates. The anomalously high annihilation rates observed for large molecules provide evidence for the existence of long-lived resonances. The nature of these resonances is not yet understood, and the data presented are expected to provide useful constraints for the development of theoretical models.

Advances in positron trapping techniques have led to room-temperature plasmas of 10' positrons with lifetimes of lo3 s. Improvements in plasma manipulation and diagnostic methods make possible a variety of new experiments, including studies just being initiated of electronpositron plasmas. The large numbers of confined positrons have also opened up a new area of positron annihilation research, in which the annihilation cross sections for positrons with a variety of molecules have been measured, as well as the energy spread of the resulting gamma rays. Such measurements are of interest for fundamental physics and for the modeling of astrophysical plasmas.

In many experiments on single-component plasmas, including antimatter plasmas, the standard diagnostic techniques used to measure the density and temperature are not appropriate. We present a new method for determining the size, shape, average density, and temperature of a singlecomponent plasma confined in a Penning trap from measurements of the plasma mode frequencies.

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Stability of highly deformed, asymmetric single-species plasmas AIP Conf.Ordered one-component plasmas: Phase transitions, normal modes, large systems, and experiments in a storage ring AIP Conf.The low-order modes of spheroidal, pure electron plasmas have been studied experimentally, both in a cylindrical electrode structure and in a quadrupole trap. Comparison is made between measurements of mode frequencies, recent analytical theories, and numerical simulations. Effects considered include trap anharmonicity, image charges, and temperature. Quantitative agreement is obtained between the predictions and these measurements for spheroidal plasmas in the quadrupole trap. In many experiments on single-component plasmas, including antimatter plasmas, the standard diagnostic techniques used to measure the density and temperature are not appropriate. A new method is presented for determining the size, shape, average density, and temperature of a plasma confined in a Penning trap from measurements of the mode frequencies.