Hydrogen-antihydrogen interactions

Abstract

Accurate quantum-mechanical calculations on the system hydrogen-antihydrogen ($\mathrm{H}\overline{\mathrm{H}}$) are presented. The energy is calculated using the Ritz variational principle, and is obtained as a function of the proton-antiproton distance in the Born-Oppenheimer approximation. It is everywhere lower and therefore more accurate than that recently calculated by Junker and Bardsley. In particular, the maximum in the interatomic interaction reported by these authors is not seen in this calculation. The cross section for rearrangement annihilation is calculated and found to be uniformly larger than that reported by Junker and Bardsley.