Speaker
Description
A Strangeness Odyssey: Kaonic Atom Measurements at the DAΦNE Collider. In particle physics, understanding the low-energy strong interaction remains a significant challenge, demanding new experimental data as input and validation. Among the promising approaches, X-ray spectroscopy of kaonic atoms offers a unique window into the antikaon-nucleon interaction at threshold. The DEAR and SIDDHARTA experiments measurements of kaonic hydrogen have enhanced our understanding of the antikaon-proton interaction, yet a full determination of the isospin-dependent antikaon-nucleon scattering lengths also requires measurement of kaonic deuterium. The SIDDHARTA-2 collaboration has leveraged the DAΦNE collider’s high-quality low-energy kaon beam, innovative experimental techniques, and state-of-the-art radiation detectors to conduct highly precise kaonic atom measurements. For the first time, X-ray transitions of kaonic deuterium to the ground state have been observed (with data analysis ongoing), in addition to measurements of other low-Z kaonic atoms, including kaonic helium and kaonic neon. This presentation will discuss the scientific motivation, experimental setups, and findings from these kaonic atoms measurements along two decades, with a focus on preliminary results from kaonic deuterium. This result, central to kaonic atom research, is expected to provide critical insights into low-energy strong interactions involving strangeness and associated symmetries. Future plans will be also addressed (EXKALIBUR proposal).
