Meson Production in Antinucleon Annihilation on Nuclei

Abstract

Pion production in coherent antiproton annihilation reactions on nuclei is studied in a fully quantum mechanical description. The elementary elastic N¯N $ar NN$ and the N¯N $ar NN$ → nπ annihilation vertices are obtained from a t-matrix accounting for coupled channels effects. The theoretical amplitudes are used to derive a microscopic N¯A $ar NA$ optical model potential and the meson production vertices. Pion nucleus final state interaction are taken into account by adding higher pion-nucleon resonances beyond the Δ-resonance. Nuclear structure aspects are described by HFB-theory. Results for p¯A $ar pA$, πA and meson production cross sections are presented.