English

Structure and Formation of the Deeply Bound $\bar{p}$ atoms

High Energy Physics - Phenomenology 2026-03-06 v2 Nuclear Theory

Abstract

We study theoretically the structure and formation of the deeply bound pˉ\bar{p} atoms. We find that the widths of the atomic states are narrower than the level spacing even for deeply bound states so that the well-isolated deeply bound pˉ\bar{p} atoms are expected to exist. We also find the pˉ\bar{p}-nuclear states with huge widths. For the observation of the deep pˉ {\bar p}-atomic states, we investigate theoretically the (pˉ,p)(\bar{p}, p) reactions for 12^{12}C, 16^{16}O, and 31^{31}P target nuclei. We find that the momentum transfer of the (pˉ,p)( {\bar p},p) reaction is small and the formation of the pˉ {\bar p}-atomic states can be observed as the discrete peak structures in the (pˉ,p)( {\bar p},p) spectrum. We conclude that the (pˉ,p)(\bar{p}, p) reactions are very much suited for the pˉ\bar{p} atom formation and the spectra of the reaction are expected to provide new valuable information on the pˉ {\bar p} atoms and pˉ {\bar p}-nucleus interaction.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.11278,
  title  = {Structure and Formation of the Deeply Bound $\bar{p}$ atoms},
  author = {Nobuhide Miyazaki and Junko Yamagata-Sekihara and Satoru Hirenzaki},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.11278},
  year   = {2026}
}

Comments

17 pages, 6 figures