Prospects for Antiproton Experiments at Fermilab

TL;DR

Fermilab's intense antiproton source enables a diverse range of experiments, including rare decay searches, charm physics, and antimatter gravity tests, promising significant advances in fundamental physics post-Tevatron.

Contribution

This paper outlines new experimental opportunities at Fermilab utilizing antiprotons for precision measurements and rare process searches, expanding the laboratory's physics program.

Findings

Potential for world-leading sensitivities in hyperon CP violation

Opportunity to study charm mixing and CP violation with tagged D^0 mesons

Plans for antimatter gravity measurements using novel techniques

Abstract

Fermilab operates the world's most intense antiproton source. Newly proposed experiments can use those antiprotons either parasitically during Tevatron Collider running or after the end of the Tevatron Collider program. For example, the annihilation of 5 to 8 GeV antiprotons is expected to yield world-leading sensitivities to hyperon rare decays and CP violation. It could also provide the world's most intense source of tagged D^0 mesons, and thus the best near-term opportunity to study charm mixing and, via CP violation, to search for new physics. Other measurements that could be made include properties of the X(3872) and the charmonium system. An experiment using a Penning trap and an atom interferometer could make the world's most precise measurement of the gravitational force on antimatter. These and other potential measurements using antiprotons offer a great opportunity for a broad and exciting physics program at Fermilab in the post-Tevatron era.