Formation, Capture and Detection of Anti-hydrogen Atoms in a Penning Trap Daniel Vrinceanu Los Alamos National Laboratory To many, antimatter is both science and fiction: antimatter invokes futuristic fascination and, for scientists, provides a laboratory opportunity to study fundamental physics concepts such as violation of CPT symmetry and search for differences in the force of gravity upon antimatter and matter. The field of cold anti-hydrogen atomic physics has been invigorated by two recent back-to-back experiments at CERN (ATHENA and ATRAP). Both experiments store and recombine cold positrons and antiprotons in the same Penning trap using a combination of strong magnetic (4 -5 Tesla) and quadrupole electrostatic fields. The state analysis by field ionization employed by the ATRAP experiment reveals that anti-hydrogen is formed (and detected) in highly excited states. I will try to summarize the state of theoretical investigations regarding: the formation anti-hydrogen atoms, whether by three-body or radiative recombination; the possibility of trapping the neutral anti-hydrogen in the same trap it was formed; the detection and state analysis by field ionization.