arXiv subjects

S. Guellati-Khelifa

Publications and source records attributed to S. Guellati-Khelifa.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

First measurement of the antihydrogen production cross section through the charge-exchange reaction of low-energy antiprotons with orthopositronium

The GBAR experiment has measured the formation rate of antihydrogen from antiproton impact on a positronium cloud for antiproton kinetic energies of 4 and 6 keV. This is the first charge-exchange cross section measurement performed using antiproton beams, which are provided by the AD-ELENA facility at CERN. The measured cross section values are $(14.1 \pm 1.3 \mathrm{(stat)} ^{+2.2}_{-1.4} \mathrm{(sys)}) \times 10^{-16}$~cm$^2$ at 6.2 keV energy and $(8.7 \pm 2.4 \mathrm{(stat)} ^{+1.5}_{-0.09} \mathrm{(sys)}) \times 10^{-16}$~cm$^2$ at 4.15 keV energy, and agree with recent theoretical three-body calculations for antihydrogen formation. These measurements are an important input for experiments with antimatter, e.g the planned measurements of antihydrogen gravitational acceleration in the GBAR collaboration.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2026

Monitoring antiproton numbers with a CMOS detector in a dense-track environment

The production of antihydrogen by the GBAR experiment at AD/ELENA requires good knowledge of the number of incident keV antiprotons, which can be problematic. We have used a commercial CMOS digital camera mounted around the experimental vacuum chamber to determine antiproton numbers from ionising particles created in the annihilation process on the surface of microchannel plate detectors which are used for beam imaging. We show that the multiplicity of emerging charged particles is as expected for individual annihilations of antiprotons with nucleons at rest, taking into account the surrounding material budget. Most of those particles are in the minimal ionising regime, but can be detected with nearly 100% efficiency in the CMOS pixel detector, while due to the thin depletion layer the device is insensitive to background gammas. Thanks to the high granularity and small pixel size millions of antiproton annihilations can be reconstructed in a dense tracking environment over a large dynamic range with good resolution. From cluster length studies of non perpendicular tracks the thickness of the depletion zone and effective detection area was estimated. The cluster length also allows for a monitoring of track angles. Antiproton numbers are determined from the number of reconstructed clusters in the CMOS sensor by means of the covered solid angle relative to a calibration measurements with well known beam intensities at the most upstream location of the GBAR apparatus. Material effects on the emerging annihilation products were estimated by Monte Carlo (Geant4) calculations, while annihilation artefacts on the complex surface of a microchannel plate are cancelled out in this approach. This method minimises largely systematic uncertainties, leading to a final error of roughly 10% for the reconstruction of absolute antiproton numbers.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2026

A determination of the backscattering probability of low-energy antiprotons

It is commonly assumed that antiprotons impinging on a material surface annihilate promptly with the nuclei of the material. However, at kinetic energies of a few keV, this assumption may not hold. As with low-energy protons, electrons or positrons that can be reflected from a target, they may undergo large-angle Coulomb scattering before annihilation occurs, thereby appearing to be "backscattered" from the material surface. This backscattering fraction, largely unknown, is a crucial ingredient to the determination of the production cross-section of antihydrogen atoms in the GBAR experiment. This paper presents a determination of the probability that 4 and 6 keV antiprotons backscatter on the surface of a Micro-Channel Plate detector used for beam imaging at GBAR. No evidence for backscattering has been found and an upper limit of 14% at 68% confidence level has been set on this probability. The impact of backscattering on the determination of the number of antiprotons that participate in antihydrogen production in GBAR is also addressed.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2023

Production of antihydrogen atoms by 6 keV antiprotons through a positronium cloud

We report on the first production of an antihydrogen beam by charge exchange of 6.1 keV antiprotons with a cloud of positronium in the GBAR experiment at CERN. The antiproton beam was delivered by the AD/ELENA facility. The positronium target was produced from a positron beam itself obtained from an electron linear accelerator. We observe an excess over background indicating antihydrogen production with a significance of 3-4 standard deviations.

hep-ex↗

arXiv2023

Feebly Interacting Particles: FIPs 2022 workshop report

Particle physics today faces the challenge of explaining the mystery of dark matter, the origin of matter over anti-matter in the Universe, the origin of the neutrino masses, the apparent fine-tuning of the electro-weak scale, and many other aspects of fundamental physics. Perhaps the most striking frontier to emerge in the search for answers involves new physics at mass scales comparable to familiar matter, below the GeV-scale, or even radically below, down to sub-eV scales, and with very feeble interaction strength. New theoretical ideas to address dark matter and other fundamental questions predict such feebly interacting particles (FIPs) at these scales, and indeed, existing data provide numerous hints for such possibility. A vibrant experimental program to discover such physics is under way, guided by a systematic theoretical approach firmly grounded on the underlying principles of the Standard Model. This document represents the report of the FIPs 2022 workshop, held at CERN between the 17 and 21 October 2022 and aims to give an overview of these efforts, their motivations, and the decadal goals that animate the community involved in the search for FIPs.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

The anomalous magnetic moment of the muon in the Standard Model

We review the present status of the Standard Model calculation of the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon. This is performed in a perturbative expansion in the fine-structure constant $α$ and is broken down into pure QED, electroweak, and hadronic contributions. The pure QED contribution is by far the largest and has been evaluated up to and including $\mathcal{O}(α^5)$ with negligible numerical uncertainty. The electroweak contribution is suppressed by $(m_μ/M_W)^2$ and only shows up at the level of the seventh significant digit. It has been evaluated up to two loops and is known to better than one percent. Hadronic contributions are the most difficult to calculate and are responsible for almost all of the theoretical uncertainty. The leading hadronic contribution appears at $\mathcal{O}(α^2)$ and is due to hadronic vacuum polarization, whereas at $\mathcal{O}(α^3)$ the hadronic light-by-light scattering contribution appears. Given the low characteristic scale of this observable, these contributions have to be calculated with nonperturbative methods, in particular, dispersion relations and the lattice approach to QCD. The largest part of this review is dedicated to a detailed account of recent efforts to improve the calculation of these two contributions with either a data-driven, dispersive approach, or a first-principle, lattice-QCD approach. The final result reads $a_μ^\text{SM}=116\,591\,810(43)\times 10^{-11}$ and is smaller than the Brookhaven measurement by 3.7$σ$. The experimental uncertainty will soon be reduced by up to a factor four by the new experiment currently running at Fermilab, and also by the future J-PARC experiment. This and the prospects to further reduce the theoretical uncertainty in the near future-which are also discussed here-make this quantity one of the most promising places to look for evidence of new physics.

hep-ph↗

arXiv2020

Positron production using a 9 MeV electron linac for the GBAR experiment

For the GBAR (Gravitational Behaviour of Antihydrogen at Rest) experiment at CERN's Antiproton Decelerator (AD) facility we have constructed a source of slow positrons, which uses a low-energy electron linear accelerator (linac). The driver linac produces electrons of 9 MeV kinetic energy that create positrons from bremsstrahlung-induced pair production. Staying below 10 MeV ensures no persistent radioactive activation in the target zone and that the radiation level outside the biological shield is safe for public access. An annealed tungsten-mesh assembly placed directly behind the target acts as a positron moderator. The system produces $5\times10^7$ slow positrons per second, a performance demonstrating that a low-energy electron linac is a superior choice over positron-emitting radioactive sources for high positron flux.

physics.ins-det↗

arXiv2020

Technologies for the ELGAR large scale atom interferometer array

We proposed the European Laboratory for Gravitation and Atom-interferometric Research (ELGAR), an array of atom gradiometers aimed at studying space-time and gravitation with the primary goal of observing gravitational waves (GWs) in the infrasound band with a peak strain sensitivity of $3.3 \times 10^{-22}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ at 1.7 Hz. In this paper we detail the main technological bricks of this large scale detector and emphasis the research pathways to be conducted for its realization. We discuss the site options, atom optics, and source requirements needed to reach the target sensitivity. We then discuss required seismic isolation techniques, Gravity Gradient Noise reduction strategies, and the metrology of various noise couplings to the detector.

physics.atom-ph↗

arXiv2019

ELGAR -- a European Laboratory for Gravitation and Atom-interferometric Research

Gravitational Waves (GWs) were observed for the first time in 2015, one century after Einstein predicted their existence. There is now growing interest to extend the detection bandwidth to low frequency. The scientific potential of multi-frequency GW astronomy is enormous as it would enable to obtain a more complete picture of cosmic events and mechanisms. This is a unique and entirely new opportunity for the future of astronomy, the success of which depends upon the decisions being made on existing and new infrastructures. The prospect of combining observations from the future space-based instrument LISA together with third generation ground based detectors will open the way towards multi-band GW astronomy, but will leave the infrasound (0.1 Hz to 10 Hz) band uncovered. GW detectors based on matter wave interferometry promise to fill such a sensitivity gap. We propose the European Laboratory for Gravitation and Atom-interferometric Research (ELGAR), an underground infrastructure based on the latest progress in atomic physics, to study space-time and gravitation with the primary goal of detecting GWs in the infrasound band. ELGAR will directly inherit from large research facilities now being built in Europe for the study of large scale atom interferometry and will drive new pan-European synergies from top research centers developing quantum sensors. ELGAR will measure GW radiation in the infrasound band with a peak strain sensitivity of $4.1 \times 10^{-22}/\sqrt{\text{Hz}}$ at 1.7 Hz. The antenna will have an impact on diverse fundamental and applied research fields beyond GW astronomy, including gravitation, general relativity, and geology.

physics.atom-ph↗