A portable positron accumulator for antihydrogen formation

A pulsed source of positrons has been developed which may be useful for antihydrogen (Iq) formation because it is portable when compared to accelerator-based sources. This positron accumulator uses a Penning-style trap to collect moderated positrons from a radioactive source. The positron pulses may be emitted with repetition rates in the range of 50-1000 Hz, which is appropriate for I:I production schemes involving laser-induced recombination. Bunching techniques may be used to vary the width of the positron pulses over the range 30-120 ns (FWHM) to match the width of the antiproton and/or laser pulses. The efficiency of the accumulator increases from ~ 10% at 100 Hz to ~ 50% at I000 Hz. At 250 Hz the efficiency is ,-, 25% and the accumulator has delivered up to 8 e +/pulse per mCi of positron activity. This translates into ,-~ 1.2 x 10 s e+/pulse for a 100 Ci SgCo source.