Primary populations of metastable antiprotonic 4He and 3He atoms -: art. no. 093401

Initial distributions of metastable antiprotonic H4e and He-3 atoms over principal (n) and angular momentum (l) quantum numbers have been deduced using laser spectroscopy experiments. The regions n=37-40 and n=35-38 in the two atoms account for almost all of the observed fractions [(3.0+/-0.1)% and (2.4+/-0.1)%] of antiprotons captured into metastable states.