Experimental work on cold, trapped metastable noble gases is reviewed. The aspects which
distinguish work with these atoms from the large body of work on cold, trapped atoms in
general is emphasized. These aspects include detection techniques and collision processes
unique to metastable atoms. Several experiments exploiting these unique features in fields
including atom optics and statistical physics are described. Precision measurements on
these atoms including fine structure splittings, isotope shifts, and atomic lifetimes are also …

We review experimental and theoretical work on cold, trapped metastable noble gases. We
em-phasize the aspects which distinguish work with these atoms from the large body of work
on cold, trapped atoms in general. These aspects include detection techniques and collision
processes unique to metastable atoms. We describe several experiments exploiting these
unique features in fields including atom optics and statistical physics. We also discuss
precision measurements on these atoms including fine structure splittings, isotope shifts …