The HADES Tracking System

The tracking system of the dielectron spectrometer HADES at GSI Darmstadt is formed out of 24 low-mass, trapezoidal multi-layer drift chambers providing in total about 30 square meter of active area. Low multiple scattering in the in total four planes of drift chambers before and after the magnetic field is ensured by using helium-based gas mixtures and aluminum cathode and field wires. First in-beam performance results are contrasted with expectations from simulations. Emphasis is placed on the energy loss information, exploring its relevance regarding track recognition.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures, presented at the 10th Vienna Conference on Instrumentation, Vienna, February 2004, to be published in NIM A (special issue

Subthreshold Xi- Production in Collisions of p(3.5 GeV)+Nb

Results on the production of the double-strange cascade hyperon $\mathrm{\Xi^-}$ are reported for collisions of p\,(3.5~GeV)\,+\,Nb, studied with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at SIS18 at GSI Helmholtzzentrum for Heavy-Ion Research, Darmstadt. For the first time, subthreshold $\mathrm{\Xi^-}$ production is observed in proton-nucleus interactions. Assuming a $\mathrm{\Xi^-}$ phase-space distribution similar to that of $\mathrm{\Lambda}$ hyperons, the production probability amounts to $P_{\mathrm{\Xi^-}}=(2.0\,\pm0.4\,\mathrm{(stat)}\,\pm 0.3\,\mathrm{(norm)}\,\pm 0.6\,\mathrm{(syst)})\times10^{-4}$ resulting in a $\mathrm{\Xi^-/(\Lambda+\Sigma^0)}$ ratio of $P_{\mathrm{\Xi^-}}/\ P_{\mathrm{\Lambda+\Sigma^0}}=(1.2\pm 0.3\,\mathrm{(stat)}\pm0.4\,\mathrm{(syst)})\times10^{-2}$. Available model predictions are significantly lower than the estimated$\mathrm{\Xi^-}$ yield.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure

Lambda hyperon production and polarization in collisions of p(3.5 GeV) + Nb

Results on $\Lambda$ hyperon production are reported for collisions of p(3.5 GeV) + Nb, studied with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at SIS18 at GSI Helmholtzzentrum for Heavy-Ion Research, Darmstadt. The transverse mass distributions in rapidity bins are well described by Boltzmann shapes with a maximum inverse slope parameter of about $90\,$MeV at a rapidity of $y=1.0$, i.e. slightly below the center-of-mass rapidity for nucleon-nucleon collisions, $y_{cm}=1.12$. The rapidity density decreases monotonically with increasing rapidity within a rapidity window ranging from 0.3 to 1.3. The $\Lambda$ phase-space distribution is compared with results of other experiments and with predictions of two transport approaches which are available publicly. None of the present versions of the employed models is able to fully reproduce the experimental distributions, i.e. in absolute yield and in shape. Presumably, this finding results from an insufficient modelling in the transport models of the elementary processes being relevant for $\Lambda$ production, rescattering and absorption. The present high-statistics data allow for a genuine two-dimensional investigation as a function of phase space of the self-analyzing $\Lambda$ polarization in the weak decay $\Lambda\rightarrow p \pi^-$. Finite negative values of the polarization in the order of $5-20\,\%$ are observed over the entire phase space studied. The absolute value of the polarization increases almost linearly with increasing transverse momentum for $p_t>300\,$MeV/c and increases with decreasing rapidity for $y < 0.8$.Comment: accepted by Eur. Phys. J.

Searching a Dark Photon with HADES

We present a search for the e+e- decay of a hypothetical dark photon, also names U vector boson, in inclusive dielectron spectra measured by HADES in the p (3.5 GeV) + p, Nb reactions, as well as the Ar (1.756 GeV/u) + KCl reaction. An upper limit on the kinetic mixing parameter squared epsilon^{2} at 90% CL has been obtained for the mass range M(U) = 0.02 - 0.55 GeV/c2 and is compared with the present world data set. For masses 0.03 - 0.1 GeV/c^2, the limit has been lowered with respect to previous results, allowing now to exclude a large part of the parameter region favoured by the muon g-2 anomaly. Furthermore, an improved upper limit on the branching ratio of 2.3 * 10^{-6} has been set on the helicity-suppressed direct decay of the eta meson, eta-> e+e-, at 90% CL

Study of the quasi-free np→npπ+π−np \to np \pi^+\pi^- reaction with a deuterium beam at 1.25 GeV/nucleon

The tagged quasi-free $np \to np\pi^+\pi^-$ reaction has been studied experimentally with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at GSI at a deuteron incident beam energy of 1.25 GeV/nucleon ($\sqrt s \sim$ 2.42 GeV/c for the quasi-free collision). For the first time, differential distributions for $\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ production in $np$ collisions have been collected in the region corresponding to the large transverse momenta of the secondary particles. The invariant mass and angular distributions for the $np\rightarrow np\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ reaction are compared with different models. This comparison confirms the dominance of the $t$-channel with $\Delta\Delta$ contribution. It also validates the changes previously introduced in the Valencia model to describe two-pion production data in other isospin channels, although some deviations are observed, especially for the $\pi^{+}\pi^{-}$ invariant mass spectrum. The extracted total cross section is also in much better agreement with this model. Our new measurement puts useful constraints for the existence of the conjectured dibaryon resonance at mass M$\sim$ 2.38 GeV and with width $\Gamma\sim$ 70 MeV

Deep sub-threshold Ξ−\Xi^- production in Ar+KCl reactions at 1.76A GeV

We report first results on a deep sub-threshold production of the doubly strange hyperon $\Xi^-$ in a heavy-ion reaction. At a beam energy of 1.76A GeV the reaction Ar+KCl was studied with the High Acceptance Di-Electron Spectrometer (HADES) at SIS18/GSI. A high-statistics and high-purity $\Lambda$ sample was collected, allowing for the investigation of the decay channel $\Xi^- \to \Lambda \pi^-$. The deduced $\Xi^-/(\Lambda+\Sigma^0)$ production ratio of $(5.6 \pm 1.2 ^{+1.8}_{-1.7})\cdot 10^{-3}$ is significantly larger than available model predictions.Comment: 4 pages, including 4 figure