Penning Trap

[Hanuman]

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penning_trap

Penning traps are devices for the storage of charged particles using a homogeneous static magnetic field and a spatially inhomogeneous static electric field. This kind of trap is particularly well suited to precision measurements of properties of ions and stable subatomic particles which have electric charge. Recently this trap has been used in the physical realization of quantum computation and quantum information processing as well. The Penning trap has also been used in the realization of what is known as a geonium atom. Currently Penning traps are used in many laboratories worldwide. For example at CERN it is used to store antiprotons.

Originally Posted by http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geonium_atom

A Geonium atom is a false "atom" created in a magnetic Penning trap.[1] A Penning trap is a combination of a homogeneous magnetic field and an electrostatic quadrupole potential. A single charged particle can be trapped indefinitely in a Penning trap. A small cloud of charged particles in such a trap is like a many-electron atom, with the difference that the role of the atomic nucleus is played by an adjustable external field in the trap.

In the simplest case, the system consists of only one electron or only one ion in the trap. This is analogous to the hydrogen atom. The properties of this single bound particle, such as the energy levels, g-factor and radius of the electron can be measured and calculated with a very high precision.[2]

Ok smarties, translate to english please? I'm super excited already but I'd be even more excited if I knew how this effects my future.