Antiproton annihilation on light nuclei at very low energies

The recent experimental data obtained by the OBELIX group on $\bar{p}$D and $\bar{p}^4$He total annihilation cross sections are analyzed. The combined analysis of these data with existing antiprotonic atom data allows, for the first time, the imaginary parts of the S-wave scattering lengths for the two nuclei to be extracted. The obtained values are: $Im a^{sc}_0 = [- 0.62 \pm 0.02 ({stat}) \pm 0.04 ({sys})] fm$ for $\bar{p}$D and $Im a^{sc}_0 = [- 0.36\pm 0.03({stat})^{+0.19}_{-0.11}({sys})] fm$ for $\bar{p}^4$He. This analysis indicates an unexpected behaviour of the imaginary part of the $\bar{p}$-nucleus S-wave scattering length as a function of the atomic weight A: $|Im a^{sc}_0|$ ($\bar{p}$p) > $|Im a^{sc}_0|$ ($\bar{p}$D) > $|Im a^{sc}_0|$ ($\bar{p}^4$He).Comment: 13 pages, 5 figure

Experimental evidence of antiproton reflection by a solid surface

We report here experimental evidence of the reflection of a large fraction of a beam of low energy antiprotons by an aluminum wall. This derives from the analysis of a set of annihilations of antiprotons that come to rest in rarefied helium gas after hitting the end wall of the apparatus. A Monte Carlo simulation of the antiproton path in aluminum indicates that the observed reflection occurs primarily via a multiple Rutherford-style scattering on Al nuclei, at least in the energy range 1-10 keV where the phenomenon is most visible in the analyzed data. These results contradict the common belief according to which the interactions between matter and antimatter are dominated by the reciprocally destructive phenomenon of annihilation.Comment: 5 pages with 5 figure

Limits on the low energy antinucleon-nucleus annihilations from the Heisenberg principle

We show that the quantum uncertainty principle puts some limits on the effectiveness of the antinucleon-nucleus annihilation at very low energies. This is caused by the fact that the realization a very effective short-distance reaction process implies information on the relative distance of the reacting particles. Some quantitative predictions are possible on this ground, including the approximate A-independence of antinucleon-nucleus annihilation rates.Comment: 10 pages, no figure

Antiparticle cloud temperatures for antihydrogen experiments

An analysis of positron and antiproton cloud temperatures under condition similar to those found in antihydrogen experiments.Some simple general trends are brought out in the analysis, which includes the effects of cloud expansion for the first time

Coulomb corrections to low energy antiproton annihilation cross sections on protons and nuclei

We calculate, in a systematic way, the enhancement effect on antiproton-proton and antiproton-nucleus annihilation cross sections at low energy due to the initial state electrostatic interaction between the projectile and the target nucleus. This calculation is aimed at future comparisons between antineutron and antiproton annihilation rates on different targets, for the extraction of pure isospin channels.Comment: 18 pages, 4 figures (latex format

A phenomenological analysis of antiproton interactions at low energies

We present an optical potential analysis of the antiproton-proton interactions at low energies. Our optical potential is purely phenomenological, and has been parametrized on data recently obtained by the Obelix Collaboration at momenta below 180 MeV/c. It reasonably fits annihilation and elastic data below 600 MeV/c, and allows us for an evaluation of the elastic cross section and rho-parameter down to zero kinetic energy. Moreover we show that the mechanism that depresses antiproton-nucleus annihilation cross sections at low energies is present in antiproton-proton interactions too.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Collisions of low-energy antiprotons with molecular hydrogen: ionization, excitation and stopping power

A time-dependent coupled-channel approach was used to calculate ionization, excitation, and energy-loss cross sections as well as energy spectra for antiproton and proton collisions with molecular hydrogen for impact energies 8 keV < E < 4000 keV.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, conference LEAP0