LEPTA PROJECT: TOWARDS POSITRONIUM

The project of the Low Energy Positron Toroidal Accumulator (LEPTA) is under development at JINR. The LEPTA facility is a small positron storage ring equipped with the electron coolin system. The project positron energy is of 2 - 10 keV. The main goal of the facility is to generate an intense flux of positronium atoms - the bound state of electron and positron. Storage ring of LEPTA facility was commissioned in September 2004 and is under development up to now. The positron injector has been constructed in 2005 ÷ 2010, and beam transfer channel - in 2011. By the end of August 2011 experiments on injection into the ring of electrons and positrons stored in the trap have been started. The recent results are presented here. LEPTA RING DEVELOPMENT The Low Energy Particle Toroidal Accumulator (LEPTA) is designed for studies of particle beam dynamics in a storage ring with longitudinal magnetic field focusing (so called "stellatron"), application of circulating electron beam to electron cooling of antiprotons and ions and positronium in-flight generation.