Decay pion spectroscopy: a new approach

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel decay pion spectroscopy method for light hypernuclei using recoil distance and magnetic spectrometry, promising significant improvements in detection rates at electron and proton beam facilities.

Contribution

It proposes a new experimental approach combining recoil distance technique and magnetic spectrometry for enhanced decay pion spectroscopy of hypernuclei.

Findings

Recoil detector characteristics were studied with alpha particles.

The method can increase hypernuclei detection rates by 10 to 100 times.

Potential for high luminosity experiments with proton beams is discussed.

Abstract

We propose a new experiment for decay pion spectroscopy of light hypernuclei at electron- and proton-beam facilities, using the recoil distance technique for separation of produced hypernuclei and a magnetic spectrometer for precise measurement of the decay pion momentum. Low-pressure MWPCs are advocated for low-energy recoil detection as they provide position and time information and are highly insensitive to gamma-ray and electron background. The position and timing characteristics of such a recoil detector were studied using ~5 MeV {\alpha}-particles. By using the present proposed approach the rate of the detected hypernuclei can be increased by one-to-two orders of magnitude compared to a recent experiment carried out at the MAMI electron accelerator in Mainz. The possibility of realizing a high luminosity decay pion spectroscopy experiment with proton beams is also discussed.