Abstract
The interaction of very low energy antiprotons (ps) and antineutrons (ns) with nuclei is interesting for its influence on both fundamental cosmology and nuclear physics. Measuring the annihilation cross section of antimatter on matter can help in solving the universe matter-antimatter puzzle and could give relevant hints in the definition of strong interaction model parameters as well. The ASACUSA collaboration recently measured the antiproton-carbon annihilation cross section at 5.3 MeV of kinetic energy of the incoming antiproton. The experimental apparatus consisted in a vacuum chamber containing thin foils (~0.7-1 μm) of carbon crossed by a bunched beam of antiprotons from the CERN Antiproton Decelerator (AD). The fraction of antiprotons annihilating on the target nucleons gives origin to charged pions which can be detected and counted by segmented scintillators placed outside the chamber. This work describes the experimental details of the apparatus and the technique to perform the cross section measurements.
Highlights
Nowdays the only source of antiprotons in the ∼ MeV energy range is the CERN Antiproton Decelerator (AD) [1]
If the same optical models which well describe the behavior of antineutrons and antiprotons at higher energies is used, the low energy extrapolated values are smaller than the measured ones; another strangeness is that the data for the antineutron seem to be well fitted by a function with a 1/p2 dependence [6] which is common for low energy antiprotons, or more generally for charged particles
In order to provide useful data to solve these puzzles, the ASACUSA Collaboration has performed the measurement of the antiproton annihilation on carbon nucleus at 5.3 MeV, and this paper describes the experimental apparatus and technique used to achieve this goal
Summary
Nowdays the only source of antiprotons in the ∼ MeV energy range is the CERN Antiproton Decelerator (AD) [1]. Collisions Using Slow Anti-protons) has performed experiments in different physics subjects: laser spectroscopy of antiprotonic helium atoms [3,4,5], microwave spectroscopy of antihydrogen ground-state hyper-fine structure [7,8,9], and nuclear collision cross section measurements of pat low energies (∼0.1–5 MeV) [10,11,12,13,14,15]. The existing experimental data of the annihilation cross section of antinucleons on nuclei show more than one discrepancy in the low energy region. In order to provide useful data to solve these puzzles, the ASACUSA Collaboration has performed the measurement of the antiproton annihilation on carbon nucleus at 5.3 MeV, and this paper describes the experimental apparatus and technique used to achieve this goal
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