Preliminary study of kaonic deuterium X-rays by the SIDDHARTA experiment at DAΦNE

Nucl Phys A. 2013 Jun 3;907(100):69-77. doi: 10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2013.03.001.

Abstract

The study of the [Formula: see text] system at very low energies plays a key role for the understanding of the strong interaction between hadrons in the strangeness sector. At the DAΦNE electron-positron collider of Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati we studied kaonic atoms with [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], taking advantage of the low-energy charged kaons from Φ-mesons decaying nearly at rest. The SIDDHARTA experiment used X-ray spectroscopy of the kaonic atoms to determine the transition yields and the strong interaction induced shift and width of the lowest experimentally accessible level (1s for H and D and 2p for He). Shift and width are connected to the real and imaginary part of the scattering length. To disentangle the isospin dependent scattering lengths of the antikaon-nucleon interaction, measurements of [Formula: see text] and of [Formula: see text] are needed. We report here on an exploratory deuterium measurement, from which a limit for the yield of the K-series transitions was derived: [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] (CL 90%). Also, the upcoming SIDDHARTA-2 kaonic deuterium experiment is introduced.

Keywords: Atomic physics, [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text]; deduced kaonic atoms X-ray K-series yields to be used for low-energy QCD; measured X-ray spectrum using SDDS at SIDDHARTA-2.