Summary of experiment:
We report on the progress of the PAX experimental program since the last PAC
meeting. During two blocks of each three weeks beam development intercepted by two
weeks of maintenance, systematic machine studies have been carried out. An effective
procedure for setting up the machine with the low-β section and a target cell at the new
PAX-IP in order to achieve high beam lifetimes has been developed.
The effect of flow-limiters and one NEG-pump on the beam lifetime has been studied,
as well as the effect of different beam emittances and beam intensities on the beam
lifetime. Even though by increasing the beam emittance a reproducible maximum for
the beam lifetime was achievable, no effect of the beam intensity was seen and therefore
no clear observation of the so-called Touschek-effect was possible. Nevertheless, we
learned how to gain a sufficient beam lifetime for spin-filtering studies at COSY and
apply for 3 weeks of beam development followed by 4 weeks of beam time
