Orders of Magnitude Improved Cyclotron-Mode Cooling for Nondestructive Spin Quantum Transition Spectroscopy with Single Trapped Antiprotons

Abstract

We demonstrate efficient subthermal cooling of the modified cyclotron mode of a single trapped antiproton and reach particle temperatures T+=E+/kB below 200 mK in preparation times shorter than 500 s. This corresponds to the fastest resistive single-particle cyclotron cooling to subthermal temperatures ever demonstrated. By cooling trapped particles to such low energies, we demonstrate the detection of antiproton spin transitions with an error rate <0.000 023, more than 3 orders of magnitude better than in previous best experiments. This method has enormous impact on multi-Penning-trap experiments that measure magnetic moments with single nuclear spins for tests of matter and antimatter symmetry, high-precision mass spectrometry, and measurements of electron g factors bound to highly charged ions that test quantum electrodynamics and establish standards for magnetometry. Published by the American Physical Society 2024