CERN Accelerating science

Article
Title	Development of a Position-Sensitive Detector for Positronium Inertial Sensing Measurements
Related title	Development of a Position-Sensitive Detector for Positronium Inertial Sensing Measurements
Author(s)	Mariazzi, S (Trento U. ; TIFPA-INFN, Trento) ; Caravita, R (TIFPA-INFN, Trento) ; Glöggler, L (CERN ; Berlin, Tech. U.) ; Povolo, L (Trento U. ; TIFPA-INFN, Trento) ; Penasa, L (Trento U. ; TIFPA-INFN, Trento) ; Sharma, S (TIFPA-INFN, Trento ; Jagiellonian U. ; Jagiellonian U. (main)) ; Moskal, P (Jagiellonian U. ; Jagiellonian U. (main)) ; Brusa, R S (Trento U. ; TIFPA-INFN, Trento)
Publication	2022
Number of pages	5
In:	Acta Phys. Pol. A 142 (2022) 319-323
In:	4th Jagiellonian Symposium on Advances in Particle Physics and Medicine, Kraków, Poland, 10 - 15 Jul 2022, pp.319-323
DOI	10.12693/APhysPolA.142.319
Subject category	Detectors and Experimental Techniques
Abstract	In the last twenty years, both free fall and interferometry/deflectometry experiments have been proposed for the measurement of the gravitational acceleration on positronium, which is a purely leptonic matter-antimatter atom formed by an electron and its antiparticle (positron). Among the several challenges posed by these experiments is the development of position-sensitive detectors to measure the deflection of positronium in the Earth's gravitational field. In this work, we describe our recent progress in the development of position-sensitive detectors. Two different detection schemes are considered. The first is based on Ps ionization in a strong homogeneous magnetic field and imaging of the freed positron with a microchannel plate. The second scheme is based on scanning the positronium atom distribution on a plane by moving the slit or a material grating with sub-nm accuracy, and counting the atoms crossing the obstacle and those annihilating on it. The possibility of reaching a spatial resolution of around 15 μm using the former detection scheme is shown, and preliminary steps towards the development of a detector following the latter scheme (with potential position sensitivity in the sub-nm range) are described.

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