The upgrade project POTLNS to produce high-intensity beams has already started at INFN- Laboratori Nazionali del Sud in Catania (Italy). The POTLNS project was triggered by the NUMEN physics case that aims to provide experimental information on the Nuclear Matrix Elements (NMEs) that enter in the expression of the neutrino-less double beta (0νββ) decay half-life. The tools proposed by NUMEN project are the cross-section measurements of nuclear Double Charge Exchange (DCE) reactions. The search for 0νββ decay is currently a key topic in physics, due to its possible wide implications for nuclear physics, particle physics and cosmology: the NUMEN project could provide a crucial contribution in this search.

PANDA (anti-Proton ANnihiliation at DArmstadt) is planned to be one of the four main experiments at the future international accelerator complex FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany. It is going to address fundamental questions of hadron physics and quantum chromodynamics using cooled antiproton beams with a high intensity and and momenta between 1.5 and 15 GeV/c. PANDA is designed to reach a maximum luminosity of 2x10^32 cm^2 s. Most of the physics programs require an excellent particle identification (PID). The PID of hadronic states at the forward endcap of the target spectrometer will be done by a fast and compact Cherenkov detector that uses the detection of internally reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) principle. It is designed to cover the polar angle range from 5{\deg} to 22{\deg} and to provide a separation power for the separation of charged pions and kaons up to 3 standard deviations (s.d.) for particle momenta up to 4 GeV/c in order to cover the important particle phase space. This document describes the technical design and the expected performance of the novel PANDA Disc DIRC detector that has not been used in any other high energy physics experiment (HEP) before. The performance has been studied with Monte-Carlo simulations and various beam tests at DESY and CERN. The final design meets all PANDA requirements and guarantees suffcient safety margins.

The use of double charge exchange reactions is discussed in view of their application to extract information that may be helpful to determinate the nuclear matrix elements entering in the expression of neutrinoless double beta decay half-life. The strategy adopted in the experimental campaigns performed at INFN - Laboratori Nazionali del Sud and in the analysis methods within the NUMEN project is briefly described, emphasizing the advantages of the multi-channel approach to nuclear reaction data analysis. An overview on the research and development activities on the MAGNEX magnetic spectrometer is also given, with a focus on the chosen technological solutions for the focal plane detector which will guarantee the performances at high-rate conditions.

AbstractThe 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 ground-state 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: $${\bar{p}}p \rightarrow {\bar{\varLambda }}\varLambda $$ p ¯ p → Λ ¯ Λ and $${\bar{p}}p \rightarrow {\bar{\varXi }}^+\varXi ^-$$ p ¯ p → Ξ ¯ + Ξ - . 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.

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 spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the study of the double and triple strange baryon spectrum provides independent information to the N^* and spectra. The future antiproton experiment P ANDA will provide direct access to final states containing a pair, for which production cross sections up to μ b are expected in p̅ p 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 ∼ 10^6 events /day . With a nearly 4π detector acceptance, P ANDA will thus be a hyperon factory. In this study, reactions of the type p̅ p → ^+ ^*- as well as p̅ p → ^*+ ^- 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

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 ground-state 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: $${\bar{p}}p \rightarrow {\bar{\varLambda }}\varLambda $$ p ¯ p → Λ ¯ Λ and $${\bar{p}}p \rightarrow {\bar{\varXi }}^+\varXi ^-$$ p ¯ p → Ξ ¯ + Ξ - . 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.

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.

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 $$\varDelta $$ spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the study of the double and triple strange baryon spectrum provides independent information to the $$N^*$$ and $$\varDelta $$ spectra. The future antiproton experiment $$\overline{\text{ P }}$$ ANDA will provide direct access to final states containing a $${\overline{\varXi }}\varXi $$ pair, for which production cross sections up to $$\mu \text{ b }$$ are expected in $$\bar{\text{ p }}$$ p 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 $$\sim 10^6\, \text{ events }/\text{day }$$ . With a nearly $$4\pi $$ detector acceptance, $$\overline{\text{ P }}$$ ANDA will thus be a hyperon factory. In this study, reactions of the type $$\bar{\text{ p }}$$ p $$\rightarrow $$ $${\overline{\varXi }}^{+}$$ $$\varXi ^{*-}$$ as well as $$\bar{\text{ p }}$$ p $$\rightarrow $$ $${\overline{\varXi }}^{*+}$$ $$\varXi ^{-}$$ 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.

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 ground-state 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: $${\bar{p}}p \rightarrow {\bar{\varLambda }}\varLambda $$ and $${\bar{p}}p \rightarrow {\bar{\varXi }}^+\varXi ^-$$ . 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.

This paper reports on Monte Carlo simulation results for future measurements of the moduli of time-like proton electromagnetic form factors, $$|G_{E}|$$ | G E | and $$|G_{M}|$$ | G M | , using the $$\bar{p} p \rightarrow \mu ^{+} \mu ^{-}$$ p ¯ p → μ + μ - reaction at $$\overline{\text {P}}\text {ANDA}$$ P ¯ ANDA (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 $$\overline{\text {P}}\text {ANDA}$$ P ¯ ANDA , using an analysis of simulated data within the PandaRoot software framework. The most crucial background channel is $$\bar{p} p \rightarrow \pi ^{+} \pi ^{-}$$ p ¯ p → π + π - , 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.

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 Δ spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the study of the double and triple strange baryon spectrum provides independent information to the N ∗ and Δ spectra. The future antiproton experiment PANDA will provide direct access to final states containing a ΞΞ pair, for which production cross sections up to μ b are expected in ¯ pp 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 ∼ 10 6 events / day. With a nearly 4 π detector acceptance, PANDA will thus be a hyperon factory. In this study, reactions of the type ¯ pp → Ξ + Ξ ∗− as well as ¯ pp → Ξ ∗+ Ξ − 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.

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 -> 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 -> 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.

This documents describes the technical design and the expected performance of the Barrel DIRC detector for the PANDA experiment. The Barrel DIRC will provide hadronic charged particle identification in the polar angle range of $22^\circ$ to $140^\circ$ for particle momenta between 0.5 GeV/c and 3.5 GeV/c. 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 $π/K$ separation with at least 3 standard deviations over the entire phase space of charged kaons in the Barrel DIRC.

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.

This paper summarises a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation study for precision resonance energy scan measurements. Apart from the proof of principle for natural width and line shape measurements of very narrow resonances with PANDA, the achievable sensitivities are quantified for the concrete example of the charmonium-like X(3872) state discussed to be exotic, and for a larger parameter space of various assumed signal cross-sections, input widths and luminosity combinations. PANDA is the only experiment that will be able to perform precision resonance energy scans of such narrow states with quantum numbers of spin and parities that differ from $ J^{PC} = 1^{--}$.

Neutrinoless double beta decay (0 nu beta beta) is considered the best potential resource to access the absolute neutrino mass scale. Moreover, if observed, it will signal that neutrinos are their own anti-particles (Majorana particles). Presently, this physics case is one of the most important research "beyond Standard Model" and might guide the way towards a Grand Unified Theory of fundamental interactions. Since the 0 nu beta beta decay process involves nuclei, its analysis necessarily implies nuclear structure issues. In the NURE project, supported by a Starting Grant of the European Research Council (ERC), nuclear reactions of double charge-exchange (DCE) are used as a tool to extract information on the 0 nu beta beta Nuclear Matrix Elements. In DCE reactions and beta beta decay indeed the initial and final nuclear states are the same and the transition operators have similar structure. Thus the measurement of the DCE absolute cross-sections can give crucial information on beta beta matrix elements. In a wider view, the NUMEN international collaboration plans a major upgrade of the INFN-LNS facilities in the next years in order to increase the experimental production of nuclei of at least two orders of magnitude, thus making feasible a systematic study of all the cases of interest as candidates for 0 nu beta beta.

The exclusive charmonium production process in $\overline{p}p$ annihilation with an associated ${\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ meson $\overline{p}p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}J/\ensuremath{\psi}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ is studied in the framework of QCD collinear factorization. The feasibility of measuring this reaction through the $J/\ensuremath{\psi}\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{e}^{+}{e}^{\ensuremath{-}}$ decay channel with the AntiProton ANnihilation at DArmstadt ($\overline{\mathsf{P}}\mathsf{ANDA}$) experiment is investigated. Simulations on signal reconstruction efficiency as well as the background rejection from various sources including the $\overline{p}p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{+}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{\ensuremath{-}}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ and $\overline{p}p\ensuremath{\rightarrow}J/\ensuremath{\psi}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}{\ensuremath{\pi}}^{0}$ reactions are performed with PandaRoot, the simulation and analysis software framework of the $\overline{\mathsf{P}}\mathsf{ANDA}$ experiment. It is shown that the measurement can be done at $\overline{\mathsf{P}}\mathsf{ANDA}$ with significant constraining power under the assumption of an integrated luminosity attainable in four to five months of data taking at the maximum design luminosity.

Bound nuclear systems with two units of strangeness are still poorly known despite their importance for many strong interaction phenomena. Stored antiprotons beams in the GeV range represent an unparalleled factory for various hyperon-antihyperon pairs. Their outstanding large production probability in antiproton collisions will open the floodgates for a series of new studies of systems which contain two or even more units of strangeness at the PANDA experiment at FAIR. For the first time, high resolution gamma-spectroscopy of doubly strange Lambda Lambda-hypernuclei will be performed, thus complementing measurements of ground state decays of Lambda Lambda-hypernuclei at J-PARC or possible decays of particle unstable hypernuclei in heavy ion reactions. High resolution spectroscopy of multistrange Xi(-) -atoms will be feasible and even the production of Omega(-) -atoms will be within reach. The latter might open the door to the vertical bar S vertical bar = 3 world in strangeness nuclear physics, by the study of the hadronic Omega(-) -nucleus interaction. For the first time it will be possible to study the behavior of Xi(+) in nuclear systems under well controlled conditions. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The results of simulations for future measurements of electromagnetic form factors at \PANDA (FAIR) within the PandaRoot software framework are reported. The statistical precision at which the proton form factors can be determined is estimated. The signal channel $\bar p p \to e^+ e^-$ is studied on the basis of two different but consistent procedures. The suppression of the main background channel, i.e. the $\bar p p \to \pi^+ \pi^-$, is studied. Furthermore, the background versus signal efficiency, statistic and systematic uncertainties on the extracted proton form factors are evaluated using to the two different procedures. The results are consistent with those of a previous simulation study using an older, simplified framework. However, a slightly better precision is achieved in the PandaRoot study in a large range of momentum transfer, assuming the nominal beam condition and detector performances.

Baryon-to-meson Transition Distribution Amplitudes (TDAs) encoding valuable new information on hadron structure appear as building blocks in the collinear factorized description for several types of hard exclusive reactions. In this paper, we address the possibility of accessing nucleon-to-pion (πN) TDAs from \(\bar pp \to e^ + e^ - \pi ^0 \) reaction with the future P̄ANDA detector at the FAIR facility. At high center-of-mass energy and high invariant mass squared of the lepton pair q 2, the amplitude of the signal channel \(\bar pp \to e^ + e^ - \pi ^0 \) admits a QCD factorized description in terms of πN TDAs and nucleon Distribution Amplitudes (DAs) in the forward and backward kinematic regimes. Assuming the validity of this factorized description, we perform feasibility studies for measuring \(\bar pp \to e^ + e^ - \pi ^0 \) with the P̄ANDA detector. Detailed simulations on signal reconstruction efficiency as well as on rejection of the most severe background channel, i.e. \(\bar pp \to \pi ^ + \pi ^ - \pi ^0 \) were performed for the center-of-mass energy squared s = 5 GeV2 and s = 10 GeV2, in the kinematic regions 3.0 < q 2 < 4.3 GeV2 and 5 < q 2 GeV2, respectively, with a neutral pion scattered in the forward or backward cone \(\left| {\cos \theta _{\pi ^0 } } \right| > 0.5\) in the proton-antiproton center-of-mass frame. Results of the simulation show that the particle identification capabilities of the P̄ANDA detector will allow to achieve a background rejection factor of 5 · 107 (1 · 107) at low (high) q 2 for s = 5 GeV2, and of 1 · 108 (6 · 106) at low (high) q 2 for s = 10 GeV2, while keeping the signal reconstruction efficiency at around 40%. At both energies, a clean lepton signal can be reconstructed with the expected statistics corresponding to 2 fb−1 of integrated luminosity. The cross sections obtained from the simulations are used to show that a test of QCD collinear factorization can be done at the lowest order by measuring scaling laws and angular distributions. The future measurement of the signal channel cross section with P̄ANDA will provide a new test of the perturbative QCD description of a novel class of hard exclusive reactions and will open the possibility of experimentally accessing π TDAs.