SEARCH FOR THE PRODUCTION OF PIONIUM ATOMS NEAR-THRESHOLD

Authors
BETKER AC CAMERON JM JACOBS WW KEITH CD NANN H PETERSON T SHAO J SPRAKER M SZYMANSKI JJ VIGDOR SE WARMAN LK PITTS WK
Citation
Ac. Betker et al., SEARCH FOR THE PRODUCTION OF PIONIUM ATOMS NEAR-THRESHOLD, Physical review letters, 77(17), 1996, pp. 3510-3513
Citations number
27
Categorie Soggetti
Physics
Journal title
Physical review letters → ACNP
ISSN journal
00319007
Volume
77
Issue
17
Year of publication
1996
Pages
3510 - 3513
Database
ISI
SICI code
0031-9007(1996)77:17<3510:SFTPOP>2.0.ZU;2-W
Abstract
We propose a model-independent method to extract a linear combination of the s-wave pi-pi scattering lengths by measuring the gamma gamma de cay branching ratio for a tagged sample of pi(+)pi(-) atoms (pionium). In the first experimental search for an appropriate tagging reaction, we observed sigma(tot)=76+/-21+/-11 pb for free pion pair production in pd-->He-3 pi(+)pi(-) 1.0 MeV above threshold. This result suggests a pionium production cross section less than or similar to 1 pb.