Influence of the p ¯ -p Nuclear Interaction on the Rate of the Low-Energy p ¯ + H μ → ( p ¯ p ) α + μ − Reaction

• Main Authors: Renat A. Sultanov, Dennis Guster, Sadhan K. Adhikari
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-04-01
• Series: Atoms
• Subjects: slow antiprotons; muonic hydrogen; protonium; few-body systems
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2218-2004/6/2/18

The influence of an additional strong p ¯ -p nuclear interaction in a three-charge-particle system with arbitrary masses is investigated. Specifically, the system of p ¯ , μ − , and p is considered in this paper, where p ¯ is an antiproton, μ − is a muon and p is a proton. A numerical computation in the framework of a detailed few-body approach is carried out for the following protonium (antiprotonic hydrogen) formation three-body reaction: p ¯ + H μ ( 1 s ) → ( p ¯ p ) α + μ − . Here, H μ ( 1 s ) is a ground state muonic hydrogen, i.e., a bound state of p and μ − . A bound state of p and its antimatter counterpart p ¯ is a protonium atom in a quantum atomic state α , i.e., P n = ( p ¯ p ) α . The low-energy cross sections and rates of the P n formation reaction are computed in the framework of coupled Faddeev-Hahn-type equations. The strong p ¯ -p interaction is included in these calculations within a first order approximation. It was found, that the inclusion of the nuclear interaction results in a quite significant correction to the rate of the three-body reaction.