Measurement of the charged pion mass using a low-density target of light atoms

Abstract

We present a new evaluation of the negatively charged pion mass based on the simultaneous spectroscopy of pionic nitrogen and muonic oxygen transitions using a gaseous target composed by a N2/O2 mixture at 1.4 bar. We present the experimental set-up and the methods for deriving the pion mass value from the spatial separation from the 5g − 4f πN transition line and the 5g − 4f μO transition line used as reference. Moreover, we discuss the importance to use dilute targets in order to minimize the influence of additional spectral lines from the presence of remaining electrons during the radiative emission. The occurrence of possible satellite lines is investigated via hypothesis testing methods using the Bayes factor.