Whispering Gallery States of Antihydrogen
Résumé
We present a theoretical study of the motion of an antihydrogen atom ($\bar{H}$) near a curved material surface. We predict existence of $\bar{H}$ atom long-living quasistationary states, localized near the surface due to quantum reflection from the Casimir-Polder/van der Waals potential. Such states are an atom-wave analog of the whispering gallery modes, known in acoustics, optics and neutron physics. We argue that the whispering gallery states of $\bar{H}$ atoms could be regarded as a full analog of recently predicted gravitational states of $\bar{H}$, where the centrifugal potential plays a role of the linear gravitational potential.