Charged Kaon Mass Measurement using the Cherenkov Effect
Abstract
The two most recent and precise measurements of the charged kaon mass use X-rays from kaonic atoms and report uncertainties of 14 ppm and 22 ppm yet differ from each other by 122 ppm. We describe the possibility of an independent mass measurement using the measurement of Cherenkov light from a narrow-band beam of kaons, pions, and protons. This technique was demonstrated using data taken opportunistically by the Main Injector Particle Production experiment at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory which recorded beams of protons, kaons, and pions ranging in momentum from +37 GeV/c to +63 GeV/c. The measured value is 491.3 +/- 1.7 MeV/c^2, which is within 1.4 sigma of the world average. An improvement of two orders of magnitude in precision would make this technique useful for resolving the ambiguity in the X-ray data and may be achievable in a dedicated experiment.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0909.0971,
title = {Charged Kaon Mass Measurement using the Cherenkov Effect},
author = {The MIPP Collaboration and N. Graf and A. Lebedev and R. J. Abrams and U. Akgun and G. Aydin and W. Baker and P. D. Barnes and T. Bergfeld and L. Beverly and A. Bujak and D. Carey and C. Dukes and F. Duru and G. J. Feldman and A. Godley and E. Gülmez and Y. O. Günaydın and H. R. Gustafson and L. Gutay and E. Hartouni and P. Hanlet and S. Hansen and M. Heffner and C. Johnstone and D. Kaplan and O. Kamaev and J. Kilmer and J. Klay and M. Kostin and D. Lange and J. Ling and M. J. Longo and L. C. Lu and C. Materniak and M. D. Messier and H. Meyer and D. E. Miller and S. R. Mishra and K. Nelson and T. Nigmanov and A. Norman and Y. Onel and J. M. Paley and H. K. Park and A. Penzo and R. J. Peterson and R. Raja and D. Rajaram and D. Ratnikov and C. Rosenfeld and H. Rubin and S. Seun and N. Solomey and R. Soltz and E. Swallow and R. Schmitt and P. Subbarao and Y. Torun and T. E. Tope and K. Wilson and D. Wright and K. Wu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0909.0971},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
6 pages, 7 figures. Submitted to Nuclear Instruments and Methods A