Detecting and Identifying Heavy Nuclei and Antinuclei with Standard Detectors

TL;DR

This paper proposes a method to detect and identify heavy nuclei and antinuclei in high energy collider experiments using existing tracking and calorimetry data, expanding the scope of particle detection beyond common particles.

Contribution

It introduces a novel approach to identify heavy nuclei and antinuclei with standard detectors, enabling new searches in high energy physics experiments.

Findings

Feasibility of using tracking and calorimetry to identify heavy nuclei

Ability to estimate charge Z and atomic weight A with errors

Potential to discover new heavy particles in collider data

Abstract

Most data gathered from high energy experiments at colliders are analyzed assuming that particles stable enough to not decay in the detector volume, and able to interact strongly or electromagnetically, must be electrons, muons, protons, neutrons, photons, kaons, and charged pions, or their antiparticles. While light nuclei and antinuclei such as (anti)deuterons have been detected, we argue that it is experimentally interesting to look for even heavier nuclei in high energy collisions. To this end, we point out that using only tracking and calorimetry information it is, in principle, possible to also search for high energy nuclei and antinuclei and determine, with errors, their charge Z and atomic weight A.