Spin effects in $p\bar p$ interaction and their possible use to polarize antiproton beams

TL;DR

This paper investigates how spin-dependent interactions in proton-antiproton collisions can be utilized to polarize antiproton beams by analyzing cross sections with the Paris optical potential and demonstrating effective polarization buildup in storage rings.

Contribution

It introduces a method to polarize antiprotons using spin effects in low energy p̄p interactions, applying the Paris optical potential for cross section calculations.

Findings

Polarization buildup is feasible within typical storage ring parameters.

Filtering mechanism can produce noticeable polarization.

Time for polarization buildup is comparable to beam lifetime.

Abstract

Low energy $p\bar p$ interaction is considered taking into account the polarization of both particles. The corresponding cross sections are calculated using the Paris nucleon-antinucleon optical potential. Then they are applied to the analysis of the polarization buildup which is due to the interaction of stored antiprotons with polarized protons of a hydrogen target. It is shown that, at realistic parameters of a storage ring and a target, the filtering mechanism provides a noticeable polarization in a time comparable with the beam lifetime.