Direct detection of antihydrogen atoms using a BGO crystal

Abstract The ASACUSA collaboration has developed a detector consisting of a large size BGO crystal to detect an atomic antihydrogen beam, and performed the direct detection of antihydrogen atoms. Energy spectra from antihydrogen annihilation on the BGO crystal are discussed in comparison to simulation results from the GEANT4 toolkit. Background mainly originating from cosmic rays were strongly suppressed by analyzing the energy deposited in the BGO and requiring a multiplicity of charged pions. Thus antihydrogen events were identified.