Why antihydrogen—and not just bare antiprotons?

A next step of great interest and importance in the antimatter RDT&E field will be the merging of goals of both positron and antiproton experimenters, to produce neutral antihydrogen. This neutral form of antimatter—in the first instance in the atomic form—will have numerous critical implications, for both basic research and for applications of antimatter where the amounts needed can raise very difficult storage problems, if we were to store bare antiprotons. This paper introduces basic issues of producing and storing antiprotons, and then discusses some uses where antihydrogen becomes vital. Antihydrogen production is also a basic step in producing cluster anti‐ions, wherein the charge/mass ratio is much smaller than that of bare antiprotons. The technologies in the positron and antiproton field appear ripe for active collaborative efforts, a collaboration necessary if the synthesis of antihydrogen is to become a routine reality in the very near future.