Abstract

A recent discovery of anomalous survival of antiprotons in dense helium media suggested the creation of ${\overline{\text{p}}-\text{He}}^{\text{2+}}{\text{-e}}^{-}$ compounds. If this unusual compound is really created in the helium media, it is the first long-lived exotic atom containing hadrons other than normal protons and neutrons. Moreover, from the viewpoint of atomic and molecular spectroscopy, this new compound is a quite attractive object of study, because it has both characters of atoms and molecules; in other words, it is neither an atom nor a molecule, but a completely new entity (for this reason, we propose to call it an “atomcule”). Therefore, we started the laser spectroscopic investigation of the compound in order to obtain definite evidence of its creation.

© 1995 Optical Society of America