Speaker
Description
The detection of cosmic-ray antinuclei holds the potential to be a groundbreaking method for identifying signatures of dark matter. The dominant background for cosmic antinuclei arises from interactions of cosmic-ray protons with interstellar hydrogen gas. However, prevalent (anti)nuclei formation models—the thermal and coalescence models—are based on different underlying physics. A deeper understanding of (anti)nuclei production mechanisms is essential to evaluate the background production and drives the ongoing effort to analyze high-statistics data from fixed-target experiments. Improving our understanding of deuteron production is a critical first step toward accurately modeling cosmic antideuteron in astrophysical processes. Antinuclei production models typically also require antiproton production cross sections as input, underscoring the importance of precise antiproton measurements as well.
NA61/SHINE has performed the first measurement of deuteron production in proton–proton interactions at 158 GeV/c (sqrt(s) = 17.3 GeV). In addition, updated proton and antiproton production yields will also be presented. These exhibit a threefold reduction in statistical uncertainties and extend the phase-space coverage in both rapidity and transverse momentum compared to previous measurements. These results will advance our understanding of proton–proton interactions at cosmic-rays energies.
| Collaboration(s) | NA61/SHINE collaboration |
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