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Low-temperature antihydrogen atoms are an effective tool to probe the validity of the fundamental laws of Physics, for example the Weak Equivalence Principle (WEP) for antimatter, and -generally speaking- it is obvious that colder atoms will increase the level of precision. After the first production of cold antihydrogen in 2002 [1], experimental efforts have substantially progressed, with really competitive results already reached by adapting to cold antiatoms some well-known techniques pre- viously developed for ordinary atoms. Unfortunately, the number of antihydrogen atoms that can be produced in dedicated experiments is many orders of magnitude smaller than of hydrogen atoms, so the development of novel techniques to enhance the production of antihydrogen with well defined (and possibly controlled) conditions is essential to improve the sensitivity. We present here some experimental results achieved by the AEgIS Collaboration, based at the CERN AD (Antiproton Decelerator) on the production of antihydrogen in a pulsed mode where the production time of 90% of atoms is known with an uncertainty of ~ 250 ns [2]. The pulsed antihydrogen source is generated by the charge-exchange reaction between Rydberg positronium ( Ps* ) and an antiproton ( p¯ ): p¯ + P s * → H¯ * + e − , where Ps* is produced via the implantation of a pulsed positron beam into a mesoporous silica target, and excited by two consecutive laser pulses, and antiprotons are trapped, cooled and manipulated in Penning-Malmberg traps. The pulsed production (which is a major milestone for AEgIS) makes it possible to select the antihydrogen axial temperature and opens the door for the tuning of the antihydrogen Rydberg states, their de-excitation by pulsed lasers and the manipulation through electric field gradients. In this paper, we present the results achieved by AEgIS in 2018, just before the Long Shutdown 2 (LS2), as well as some of the ongoing improvements to the system, aimed at exploiting the lower energy antiproton beam from ELENA [3].

The first successful demonstration of broadband laser cooling of positronium (Ps) atoms, obtained within the AEgIS experiment at CERN, is presented here. By employing a custom-designed pulsed alexandrite laser system at 243 nm featuring long-duration pulses of 70 ns and an energy able to saturate the 1 3 S–2 3 P transition over the broad spectrum range of 360 GHz, the temperature of a room-temperature Ps cloud was reduced from 380 K to 170 K in 70 ns. This advancement opens new avenues for precision spectroscopy, antihydrogen production, and fundamental tests with antimatter.

In the context of the Antihydrogen Experiment: Gravity, Interferometry, Spectroscopy (AEgIS) located at CERN, positron-positronium converters with a high positron-positronium conversion efficiency have been designed in both reflection and transmission geometries. The converters utilize nanochanneled silicon target technology with positron conversion efficiencies up to around 50% and around 16%, at room temperature and in the absence of magnetic fields, for reflection and transmission respectively. The positron-positronium converters allow for the pulsed production of antihydrogen ( H ¯ ) within the AEgIS experiment. This paper discusses the use of a pulsed H ¯ beam in a moiré deflectometer to perform a precise gravitational measurement on H ¯ at AEgIS. This work describes the principles and technical details of the current design of a moiré deflectometer using the pulsed H ¯ beam. The main goal of this work is to summarize the ongoing project of adding the described moiré deflectometer to the AEgIS experiment to further their efforts toward probing the material dependence of gravity and testing the weak equivalence principle (WEP).

A powerful and robust control system is a crucial, often neglected, pillar of any modern, complex physics experiment that requires the management of a multitude of different devices and their precise time synchronisation. The AEḡIS collaboration presents CIRCUS, a novel, autonomous control system optimised for time-critical experiments such as those at CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator and, more broadly, in atomic and quantum physics research. Its setup is based on Sinara/ARTIQ and TALOS, integrating the ALPACA analysis pipeline, the last two developed entirely in AEḡIS. It is suitable for strict synchronicity requirements and repeatable, automated operation of experiments, culminating in autonomous parameter optimisation via feedback from real-time data analysis. CIRCUS has been successfully deployed and tested in AEḡIS; being experiment-agnostic and released open-source, other experiments can leverage its capabilities.

The study of radioisotopes as well as of highly charged ions is a very active and dynamic field. In both cases, the most sensitive probes involve species trapped in Penning or Paul traps after a lengthy series of production and separation steps that limit the types and lifetimes of species that can be investigated. We propose a novel production scheme that forms fully (or almost fully) stripped radionuclei in form of highly charged ions (HCI's) directly in the trapping environment. The method extends the range of species, among them radioisotopes such as \\(^{21}\\)F, \\(^{100}\\)Sn or \\(^{229}\\)Th, that can be readily produced and investigated and is complementary to existing techniques.

The primary goal of the AEgIS experiment is to precisely measure the free fall of antihydrogen within Earth's gravitational field. To this end, a cold ~50K antihydrogen beam has to pass through two grids forming a moiré deflectometer before annihilating onto a position-sensitive detector, which shall determine the vertical position of the annihilation vertex relative to the grids with micrometric accuracy. Here we introduce a vertexing detector based on a modified mobile camera sensor and experimentally demonstrate that it can measure the position of antiproton annihilations with an accuracy of \\(0.62^{+0.40}_{-0.22}\\mu m\\), which represents a 35-fold improvement over the previous state-of-the-art for real-time antiproton vertexing. Importantly, these antiproton detection methods are directly applicable to antihydrogen. Moreover, the sensitivity to light of the sensor enables the in-situ calibration of the moiré deflectometer, significantly reducing systematic errors. This sensor emerges as a breakthrough technology for achieving the \\aegis scientific goals and has been selected as the basis for the development of a large-area detector for conducting antihydrogen gravity measurements.

We report on laser cooling of a large fraction of positronium (Ps) in free-flight by strongly saturating the \\(1^3S\\)-\\(2^3P\\) transition with a broadband, long-pulsed 243 nm alexandrite laser. The ground state Ps cloud is produced in a magnetic and electric field-free environment. We observe two different laser-induced effects. The first effect is an increase in the number of atoms in the ground state after the time Ps has spent in the long-lived \\(3^3P\\) states. The second effect is the one-dimensional Doppler cooling of Ps, reducing the cloud's temperature from 380(20) K to 170(20) K. We demonstrate a 58(9) % increase in the coldest fraction of the Ps ensemble.

The Yellow Sea region is of high global importance for waterbird populations, but recent systematic bird count data enabling identification of the most important sites are relatively sparse for some areas. Surveys of waterbirds at three sites on the coast of southern Jiangsu Province, China, in 2014 and 2015 produced peak counts of international importance for 24 species, including seven globally threatened and six Near Threatened species. The area is of particular global importance for the ‘Critically Endangered’ Spoon-billed Sandpiper Calidris pygmaea (peak count across all three study sites: 62 in spring [2015] and 225 in autumn [2014] and ‘Endangered’ Spotted Greenshank Tringa guttifer (peak count across all three study sites: 210 in spring [2014] and 1,110 in autumn [2015]). The southern Jiangsu coast is therefore currently the most important migratory stopover area in the world, in both spring and autumn, for both species. Several serious and acute threats to waterbirds were recorded at these study sites. Paramount is the threat of large-scale land claim which would completely destroy intertidal mudflats of critical importance to waterbirds. Degradation of intertidal mudflat habitats through the spread of invasive Spartina, and mortality of waterbirds by entrapment in nets or deliberate poisoning are also real and present serious threats here. Collisions with, and displacement by, wind turbines and other structures, and industrial chemical pollution may represent additional potential threats. We recommend the rapid establishment of effective protected areas for waterbirds in the study area, maintaining large areas of open intertidal mudflat, and the urgent removal of all serious threats currently faced by waterbirds here.

The article deals with the problem of finding new means of spiritual values of university students. An attempt was made to prove that information and communication technologies can be involved in the educational process, not only as educational supply, but also as a means of spiritual education. It is noted that the humanization of the educational process becomes practical in the case of specially organized communication, which is created by teachers at lectures, seminars, workshops, academic competitions, scientific and practical conferences, exhibitions of creative works, thematic days, etc. It is noted that students should be formed with interest to information and communication technologies that contain information capable to enrich the spiritual world of the individual. The leading role in the mentioned process is given to the tutor of a student group. Among the internet technologies that have significant educational influence, there should be pointed out digital libraries, virtual museums and the Internet versions of educational channels, social networks and websites of educational institutions which are focused on activating different forms and methods of interaction between teachers and students, resulting in the formation and development of leading personality traits that constitute spiritual originality and affirm the moral imperative of the individual. Forms characterization of process organization of inculcating spiritual values on the main features is presented. It is found that the development of the spiritual value quintessence of future specialists should be organized in three spheres: mastering knowledge of spiritual, moral, aesthetic things; self-knowledge and self-improvement; participation in socially significant activities. The authors emphasize that the effectiveness of the information and communication technologies usage is possible in the case of the compliance with a number of educational conditions and confirms that for the formation of spiritual students' values a coherent educational system is needed to be created.

Declines in populations of the Critically Endangered Spoon-billed Sandpiper Calidris pygmaeus have been rapid, with the breeding population now perhaps numbering fewer than 120 pairs. The reasons for this decline remain unresolved. Whilst there is evidence that hunting in wintering areas is an important factor, loss of suitable habitat on passage and wintering areas is also of concern. While some key sites for the species are already documented, many of their wintering locations are described here for the first time. Their wintering range primarily stretches from Bangladesh to China. Comprehensive surveys of potential Spoon-billed Sandpiper wintering sites from 2005 to 2013 showed a wide distribution with three key concentrations in Myanmar and Bangladesh, but also regular sites in China, Vietnam and Thailand. The identification of all important non-breeding sites remains of high priority for the conservation of the species. Here, we present the results of field surveys of wintering Spoon-billed Sandpipers that took place in six countries between 2005 and 2013 and present species distribution models which map the potential wintering areas. These include known and currently unrecognised wintering locations. Our maximum entropy model did not identify any new extensive candidate areas within the winter distribution, suggesting that most key sites are already known, but it did identify small sites on the coast of eastern Bangladesh, western Myanmar, and the Guangxi and Guangdong regions of China that may merit further investigation. As no extensive areas of new potential habitat were identified, we suggest that the priorities for the conservation of this species are habitat protection in important wintering and passage areas and reducing hunting pressure on birds at these sites.