Related papers: Detection of $\pi^+\pi^-$atoms with the DIRAC spec…
The goal of the DIRAC experiment at CERN (PS212) is to measure the $\pi^+\pi^-$ atom lifetime with 10% precision. Such a measurement would yield a precision of 5% on the value of the $S$-wave $\pi\pi$ scattering lengths combination…
The DIRAC experiment at CERN has achieved a sizeable production of $\pi^+\pi^-$ atoms and has significantly improved the precision on its lifetime determination. From a sample of 21227 atomic pairs, a 4% measurement of the S-wave $\pi\pi$…
The DIRAC experiment at CERN aims to measure the lifetime of the pionium atom ($A_{2\pi}$), a $\pi^+\pi^-$ bound state with an accuracy of 10%. The experimental setup consists of a high precision magnetic double arm spectrometer, located at…
The DIRAC experiment, a magnetic double arm spectrometer, aims to measure the $\pi^+\pi^-$ atom lifetime with 10% precision, using the high intensity 24 GeV/c proton beam of the CERN Proton Synchrotron. Since the value of this lifetime of…
The aim of the DIRAC experiment at CERN is to provide an accurate determination of S-wave pion-pion scattering lengths from the measurement of the lifetime of the pi+ pi- atom. The measurement will be done with precision comparable to the…
After observing and investigating the double-exotic $\pi^+\pi^-$ atom with the ground state lifetime $\tau$ of about $3 \times 10^{-15}$~s, the upgraded DIRAC experiment at the CERN PS accelerator observes for the first time long-lived…
The DIRAC spectrometer has been commissioned at CERN with the aim of detecting $\pi^+ \pi^-$ atoms produced by a 24 GeV/$c$ high intensity proton beam in thin foil targets. A challenging apparatus is required to cope with the high…
We present evidence for the first observation of electromagnetically bound $\pi^\pm K^\mp$-pairs ($\pi K$-atoms) with the DIRAC experiment at the CERN-PS. The $\pi K$-atoms are produced by the 24 GeV/c proton beam in a thin Pt-target and…
After having announced the statistically significant observation (5.6~$\sigma$) of the new exotic $\pi K$ atom, the DIRAC experiment at the CERN proton synchrotron presents the measurement of the corresponding atom lifetime, based on the…
The adapted DIRAC experiment at the CERN PS accelerator observed for the first time long-lived hydrogen-like $\pi^+\pi^-$ atoms, produced by protons hitting a beryllium target. A part of these atoms crossed the gap of 96~mm and got broken…
The observation of hydrogen-like $\pi K$ atoms, consisting of $\pi^- K^+$ or $\pi^+ K^-$ mesons, is presented. The atoms have been produced by 24 GeV/$c$ protons from the CERN PS accelerator, interacting with platinum or nickel foil…
The lifetime measurement of pi+pi- atoms (A2pi) with 10% precision provides in a model independent way the difference between the S-wave pion-pion scattering lengths for isospin 0 and 2, |a0 -a2|, with 5% accuracy. The scattering lengths a0…
The scattering lengths of a two pion system are the {\it golden magnitudes} to test the QCD predictions in the low energy sector. The DIRAC (PS-212) experiment at CERN will obtain a particular combination of the S-wave isospin 0 and 2…
The results of a search for hydrogen-like atoms consisting of $\pi^{\mp}K^{\pm}$ mesons are presented. Evidence for $\pi K$ atom production by 24 GeV/c protons from CERN PS interacting with a nickel target has been seen in terms of…
We report the progress in the measurement of the pionium lifetime by the DIRAC Collaboration at CERN (PS212). Based on data collected in 2001-2003 on Ni targets we have achieved the precision of 11% in the measurement of the pionium…
The pi+pi- atom decays -in the ground state - predominantly into two neutral pions. We present a general expression for the corresponding decay width in the framework of QCD (including photons). It contains all terms at leading and…
The DIRAC Collaboration presents a first search for "atomic pi(+) pi(-) pairs" from ionization of pionium.
We performed the first direct calculation of the probability of pionium (pi+pi- atom) ionization in the target. The dependence of the probability of pionium ionization in the target as a function of the pionium lifetime is established.…
Chiral Perturbation Theory predicts the lifetime of pionium, a hydrogen-like $\pi^+ \pi^-$ atom, to better than 3% precision. The goal of the DIRAC experiment at CERN is to obtain and check this value experimentally by measuring the…
We propose a non relativistic effective Lagrangian approach to study hadronic atom observables in the framework of QCD (including photons). We apply our formalism to derive a general expression for the width of the pi+pi- atom decaying into…