Fixed target measurements at LHCb for cosmic rays physics

TL;DR

This paper reports on fixed target measurements at LHCb, focusing on antiproton production in proton-helium collisions, which are crucial for understanding cosmic ray antiprotons and have implications for astrophysics.

Contribution

It presents the first measurement of antiproton production in proton-helium collisions at LHCb, providing new data for cosmic ray physics and improving interpretation of cosmic antiproton flux measurements.

Findings

First measurement of antiproton production in p-He collisions at LHCb

Provides data relevant for cosmic ray antiproton flux modeling

Enhances understanding of particle production at high energies

Abstract

The LHCb experiment has the unique possibility, among the LHC experiments, to be operated in fixed target mode, using its internal gas target. The energy scale achievable at the LHC, combined with the LHCb forward geometry and detector capabilities, allow to explore particle production in a wide Bjorken-$x$ range at the $\sqrt{s_{\scriptscriptstyle\rm NN}} \sim 100$ GeV energy scale, providing novel inputs to nuclear and cosmic ray physics. The first measurement of antiproton production in collisions of LHC protons on helium nuclei at rest is presented. The knowledge of this cross-section is of great importance for the study of the cosmic antiproton flux, and the LHCb results are expected to improve the interpretation of the recent high-precision measurements of cosmic antiprotons performed by the space-borne PAMELA and AMS-02 experiments.