PAX - The Road towards Polarized Antiprotons

Abstract

The PAX-Collaboration is pursuing studies to find a method for producing an intense beam of polarized antiprotons. The following write-up gives a physics motivation, the possible methods and previous tests that have been performed. Currently spin-filtering in a suitable storage ring is the only viable method to achieve this goal. PAX has recently performed a spin-filtering measurement with protons in the COSY storage ring at Forschungszentrum Jülich (Germany) as a step towards an experiment with antiprotons, planned at CERN/AD. An outlook is also given as to what the possibility would be for exploiting a polarized antiproton beam in HESR at FAIR. All of the issues are discussed in a concise way -for more details the reader is referred to the given references.

Internal Experiments at COSY-Juelich

“…By means of a Siberian snake, the spin closed orbit at the location of the polarized target can be aligned along the direction of motion of the stored particles. The required field strengths that can be obtained with a solenoid together for the various experimental investigations [16,22,23,24,25] are listed in table 1. The snake is ordered and will be delivered during the next year.…”