Physics Letters B (Dec 2015)

First observation of long-lived π+π− atoms

  • B. Adeva,
  • L. Afanasyev,
  • A. Anania,
  • S. Aogaki,
  • A. Benelli,
  • V. Brekhovskikh,
  • T. Cechak,
  • M. Chiba,
  • P. Chliapnikov,
  • P. Doskarova,
  • D. Drijard,
  • A. Dudarev,
  • M. Duma,
  • D. Dumitriu,
  • D. Fluerasu,
  • A. Gorin,
  • O. Gorchakov,
  • K. Gritsay,
  • C. Guaraldo,
  • M. Gugiu,
  • M. Hansroul,
  • Z. Hons,
  • S. Horikawa,
  • Y. Iwashita,
  • V. Karpukhin,
  • J. Kluson,
  • M. Kobayashi,
  • V. Kruglov,
  • L. Kruglova,
  • A. Kulikov,
  • E. Kulish,
  • A. Kuptsov,
  • A. Lamberto,
  • A. Lanaro,
  • R. Lednicky,
  • C. Mariñas,
  • J. Martincik,
  • L. Nemenov,
  • M. Nikitin,
  • K. Okada,
  • V. Olchevskii,
  • V. Ovsiannikov,
  • M. Pentia,
  • A. Penzo,
  • M. Plo,
  • P. Prusa,
  • G. Rappazzo,
  • A. Romero Vidal,
  • A. Ryazantsev,
  • V. Rykalin,
  • J. Saborido,
  • J. Schacher,
  • A. Sidorov,
  • J. Smolik,
  • F. Takeutchi,
  • L. Tauscher,
  • T. Trojek,
  • S. Trusov,
  • T. Urban,
  • T. Vrba,
  • V. Yazkov,
  • Y. Yoshimura,
  • M. Zhabitsky,
  • P. Zrelov

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physletb.2015.09.060
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 751, no. C
pp. 12 – 18

Abstract

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After observing and investigating the double-exotic (a double-exotic atom is a bound system, in which both oppositely charged components are unstable particles like μ,π,K,…) π+π− atom with the ground state lifetime τ of about 3×10−15 s, the upgraded DIRAC experiment at the CERN PS accelerator observes for the first time long-lived states of the same atom with lifetimes of about 10−11 s and more. The number of characteristic pion pairs resulting from the breakup (ionisation) of long-lived π+π− atoms amounts to 436±61, corresponding to a signal-to-error ratio of better than 7 standard deviations. This observation opens a new possibility to measure energy differences between p and s atomic states and so to determine ππ scattering lengths.