A pellet tracking system for hadron physics experiments

Frozen microspheres of hydrogen (pellets) are used as targets in the hadron physics experiment WASA (Forschungszentrum Jülich, Germany) [1] and will also be used in the future PANDA experiment at FAIR (GSI, Darmstadt, Germany) [2]. The interaction region is defined by the overlap of the pellet stream and the accelerator beam and has a size of a few millimeters. One would like to know the interaction point more precisely, to have better possibility to reconstruct particle tracks and events. One would also like to suppress background events that do not originate in a pellet, but e.g. may occur in residual gas in the beam pipe. A solution is provided by the presented pellet tracking system, for which a prototype [3] has been developed in Uppsala. The goal is to track individual pellets in order to know their position at the time of an interaction. The design of such a system, simulation techniques and results are presented

Measurements and simulations of single-event upsets in a 28-nm FPGA

Single-event upsets in the configuration memory of the 28-nm Xilinx Kintex-7 FPGA, used in the PANDA electromagnetic calorimeter, have been studied. Results from neutron and proton irradiations at energies up to 184 MeV are presented and compared with previous experimental results. In order to gain information about the energy-dependence of the single-event upset cross section, a GEANT4-based Monte Carlo simulation of upset mechanisms in nanometric silicon volumes has been developed. The results from this model are shown to agree with the experimental data for both neutrons and protons. Knowledge about the energy dependence of the cross section and of the particle flux at the location of the front-end modules in PANDA enables better estimates of the mean time between failures in the electromagnetic calorimeter. At PANDA, a total neutron flux of 1·102 cm− 2 s− 1 at the location of the front-end modules is expected at the lowest antipro-ton beam momentum and a luminosity of 1·1031 cm− 2 s− 1, leading to a predicted Mean Time Between Failures of 47±10 hours per FPGA in the electromagnetic calorimeter

The potential of Lambda and Xi(-) studies with PANDA at FAIR

The antiproton experiment PANDA at FAIR is designed to bring hadron physics to a new level in terms of scope, precision and accuracy. In this work, its unique capability for studies of hyperons is outlined. We discuss groundstate hyperons as diagnostic tools to study non-perturbative aspects of the strong interaction, and fundamental symmetries. New simulation studies have been carried out for two benchmark hyperon-antihyperon production channels: (p) over barp -&gt; (Lambda) over bar Lambda and (p) over barp -&gt; (Xi) over bar+Xi(-). The results, presented in detail in this paper, show that hyperon-antihyperon pairs from these reactions can be exclusively reconstructed with high efficiency and very low background contamination. In addition, the polarisation and spin correlations have been studied, exploiting the weak, self-analysing decay of hyperons and antihyperons. Two independent approaches to the finite efficiency have been applied and evaluated: one standard multidimensional efficiency correction approach, and one efficiency independent approach. The applicability of the latter was thoroughly evaluated for all channels, beam momenta and observables. The standard method yields good results in all cases, and shows that spin observables can be studied with high precision and accuracy already in the first phase of data taking with PANDA.For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-021-00386-y</p

Study of excited Ξ baryons with the P¯ANDA detector

The study of baryon excitation spectra provides insight into the inner structure of baryons. So far, most of the world-wide efforts have been directed towards N * and Delta spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the study of the double and triple strange baryon spectrum provides independent information to the N * and Delta spectra. The future antiproton experiment (P) over bar ANDA will provide direct access to final states containing a (Xi) over bar Xi pair, for which production cross sections up to mu b are expected in (p) over barp reactions. With a luminosity of L = 10(31) cm(-2) s(-1) in the first phase of the experiment, the expected cross sections correspond to a production rate of similar to 10(6) events/day. With a nearly 4 pi detector acceptance, (P) over bar ANDA will thus be a hyperon factory. In this study, reactions of the type (p) over barp -&gt; (Xi) over bar (+)Xi*(-) as well as (p) over barp -&gt; (Xi) over bar*(+)Xi(-) with various decay modes are investigated. For the exclusive reconstruction of the signal events a full decay tree fit is used, resulting in reconstruction efficiencies between 3 and 5%. This allows high statistics data to be collected within a few weeks of data taking.For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-021-00444-5Title in WoS: Study of excited Xi baryons with the (P)over-barANDA detector</p

Technical design report for the (P)over-barANDA Barrel DIRC detector

The (P) over bar ANDA (anti-Proton ANnihiliation at DArmstadt) experiment will be one of the four flagship experiments at the new international accelerator complex FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany. (P) over bar ANDA will address fundamental questions of hadron physics and quantum chromodynamics using high-intensity cooled antiproton beams with momenta between 1.5 and 15 GeV/c and a design luminosity of up to 2 x 10(32) cm(-2) S-1. Excellent particle identification (PID) is crucial to the success of the (P) over bar ANDA physics program. Hadronic PID in the barrel region of the target spectrometer will be performed by a fast and compact Cherenkov counter using the detection of internally reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) technology. It is designed to cover the polar angle range from 22 degrees to 140 degrees and will provide at least 3 standard deviations (s.d.) pi/K separation up to 3.5 GeV/c, matching the expected upper limit of the final state kaon momentum distribution from simulation. This documents describes the technical design and the expected performance of the (P) over bar ANDA Barrel DIRC detector. The design is based on the successful BaBar DIRC with several key improvements. The performance and system cost were optimized in detailed detector simulations and validated with full system prototypes using particle beams at GSI and CERN. The final design meets or exceeds the PID goal of clean pi/K separation with at least 3 s.d. over the entire phase space of charged kaons in the Barrel DIRC.For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1361-6471/aade3d</p

Feasibility studies for the measurement of time-like proton electromagnetic form factors from (p)over-barp -&gt; mu(+)mu(-) at PANDA at FAIR

This paper reports on Monte Carlo simulation results for future measurements of the moduli of time-like proton electromagnetic form factors, vertical bar G(E)vertical bar and vertical bar G(M)vertical bar, using the (p) over barp -&gt; mu(+)mu(-) reaction at PANDA (FAIR). The electromagnetic form factors are fundamental quantities parameterizing the electric and magnetic structure of hadrons. This work estimates the statistical and total accuracy with which the form factors can be measured at PANDA, using an analysis of simulated data within the PandaRoot software framework. The most crucial background channel is (p) over barp -&gt; pi(+)pi(-), due to the very similar behavior of muons and pions in the detector. The suppression factors are evaluated for this and all other relevant background channels at different values of antiproton beam momentum. The signal/background separation is based on a multivariate analysis, using the Boosted Decision Trees method. An expected background subtraction is included in this study, based on realistic angular distributions of the background contribution. Systematic uncertainties are considered and the relative total uncertainties of the form factor measurements are presented.For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-020-00333-3</p

PANDA Phase One

The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany, provides unique possibilities for a new generation of hadron-, nuclear- and atomic physics experiments. The future antiProton ANnihilations at DArmstadt (PANDA or PANDA) experiment at FAIR will offer a broad physics programme, covering different aspects of the strong interaction. Understanding the latter in the non-perturbative regime remains one of the greatest challenges in contemporary physics. The antiproton-nucleon interaction studied with PANDA provides crucial tests in this area. Furthermore, the high-intensity, low-energy domain of PANDA allows for searches for physics beyond the Standard Model, e.g. through high precision symmetry tests. This paper takes into account a staged approach for the detector setup and for the delivered luminosity from the accelerator. The available detector setup at the time of the delivery of the first antiproton beams in the HESR storage ring is referred to as the Phase One setup. The physics programme that is achievable during Phase One is outlined in this paper.For complete list of authors see http://dx.doi.org/10.1140/epja/s10050-021-00475-y</p

Search for the η\eta mesic 3He^{3}He in the pd→dpπ0pd \rightarrow dp\pi^{0} reaction with the WASA-at-COSY facility

The excitation function for the pd→dpπ0 reaction has been measured by WASA-at-COSY experiment with the aim of searching for 3He−η mesic nuclei. The measurement in the vicinity of η meson production was performed using a ramped proton beam. The data analysis and interpretation was carried out with the assumption that the η mesic helium decays via the formation of an intermediate N∗(1535) resonance. No direct signal of the η mesic nucleus is observed in the excitation function. We determine a new improved upper limit for the total cross section for the bound state production and decay in the pd→(3He-η)bound→dpπ0 process. It varies between 13 nb to 24 nb for the bound state with width in the range Γ∈(5,50) MeV

On the Production of an Isotensor Dibaryon in the pp→ppπ+π−pp \to pp\pi^+\pi^- Reaction

Exclusive measurements of the quasi-free $pp \to pp\pi^+\pi^-$ reaction have been performed by means of $pd$ collisions at $T_p$ = 1.2 GeV using the WASA detector setup at COSY. Total and differential cross sections have been obtained covering the energy region $T_p = 1.08 - 1.36$ GeV ($\sqrt s$ = 2.35 - 2.46 GeV), which includes the regions of $N^*(1440)$ and $\Delta(1232)\Delta(1232)$ resonance excitations. Calculations describing these excitations by $t$-channel meson exchange are at variance with experimental differential cross sections and underpredict substantially the measured total cross section. An isotensor $\Delta N$ dibaryon resonance with $I(J^P) = 2(1^+)$ produced associatedly with a pion is able to overcome these deficiencies. Such a dibaryon was predicted by Dyson and Xuong and more recently calculated by Gal and Garcilazo