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PANDA (anti-proton annihiliation at Darmstadt) is planned to be one of the four main experiments at the future international accelerator complex FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany. It is going to address fundamental questions of hadron physics and quantum chromodynamics using cooled antiproton beams with a high intensity and and momenta between 1.5 and 15 GeV/c. PANDA is designed to reach a maximum luminosity of 2 × 10³² cm⁻² s. Most of the physics programs require an excellent particle identification (PID). The PID of hadronic states at the forward endcap of the target spectrometer will be done by a fast and compact Cherenkov detector that uses the detection of internally reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) principle. It is designed to cover the polar angle range from 5° to 22° and to provide a separation power for the separation of charged pions and kaons up to 3 standard deviations (s.d.) for particle momenta up to 4 GeV/c in order to cover the important particle phase space. This document describes the technical design and the expected performance of the novel PANDA disc DIRC detector that has not been used in any other high energy physics experiment before. The performance has been studied with Monte-Carlo simulations and various beam tests at DESY and CERN. The final design meets all PANDA requirements and guarantees sufficient safety margins.

This paper reports on Monte Carlo simulation results for future measurements of the moduli of time-like proton electromagnetic form factors, vertical bar G(E)vertical bar and vertical bar G(M)vertical bar, using the (p) over barp -> mu(+)mu(-) reaction at PANDA (FAIR). The electromagnetic form factors are fundamental quantities parameterizing the electric and magnetic structure of hadrons. This work estimates the statistical and total accuracy with which the form factors can be measured at PANDA, using an analysis of simulated data within the PandaRoot software framework. The most crucial background channel is (p) over barp -> pi(+)pi(-), due to the very similar behavior of muons and pions in the detector. The suppression factors are evaluated for this and all other relevant background channels at different values of antiproton beam momentum. The signal/background separation is based on a multivariate analysis, using the Boosted Decision Trees method. An expected background subtraction is included in this study, based on realistic angular distributions of the background contribution. Systematic uncertainties are considered and the relative total uncertainties of the form factor measurements are presented.

The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany, provides unique possibilities for a new generation of hadron-, nuclear- and atomic physics experiments. The future antiProton ANnihilations at DArmstadt (PANDA or PANDA) experiment at FAIR will offer a broad physics programme, covering different aspects of the strong interaction. Understanding the latter in the non-perturbative regime remains one of the greatest challenges in contemporary physics. The antiproton-nucleon interaction studied with PANDA provides crucial tests in this area. Furthermore, the high-intensity, low-energy domain of PANDA allows for searches for physics beyond the Standard Model, e.g. through high precision symmetry tests. This paper takes into account a staged approach for the detector setup and for the delivered luminosity from the accelerator. The available detector setup at the time of the delivery of the first antiproton beams in the HESR storage ring is referred to as the Phase One setup. The physics programme that is achievable during Phase One is outlined in this paper.

A feasibility study has been performed in order to investigate the performance of the HADES detector to measure the electromagnetic decays of the hyperon resonances Sigma(1385)(0), Lambda(1405) and Lambda(1520) as well as the production of double strange baryon systems Xi(-) and Lambda Lambda in p + p reactions at a beam kinetic energy of 4.5GeV. The existing HADES detector will be upgraded by a new Forward Detector, which extends the detector acceptance into a range of polar angles that plays a crucial role for these investigations. The analysis of each channel is preceded by a consideration of the production cross-sections. Afterwards the expected signal count rates using a target consisting of either liquid hydrogen or polyethylene are summarized.

The study of baryon excitation spectra provides insight into the inner structure of baryons. So far, most of the world-wide efforts have been directed towards N * and Delta spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the study of the double and triple strange baryon spectrum provides independent information to the N * and Delta spectra. The future antiproton experiment (P) over bar ANDA will provide direct access to final states containing a (Xi) over bar Xi pair, for which production cross sections up to mu b are expected in (p) over barp reactions. With a luminosity of L = 10(31) cm(-2) s(-1) in the first phase of the experiment, the expected cross sections correspond to a production rate of similar to 10(6) events/day. With a nearly 4 pi detector acceptance, (P) over bar ANDA will thus be a hyperon factory. In this study, reactions of the type (p) over barp -> (Xi) over bar (+)Xi*(-) as well as (p) over barp -> (Xi) over bar*(+)Xi(-) with various decay modes are investigated. For the exclusive reconstruction of the signal events a full decay tree fit is used, resulting in reconstruction efficiencies between 3 and 5%. This allows high statistics data to be collected within a few weeks of data taking.

The antiproton experiment PANDA at FAIR is designed to bring hadron physics to a new level in terms of scope, precision and accuracy. In this work, its unique capability for studies of hyperons is outlined. We discuss groundstate hyperons as diagnostic tools to study non-perturbative aspects of the strong interaction, and fundamental symmetries. New simulation studies have been carried out for two benchmark hyperon-antihyperon production channels: (p) over barp -> (Lambda) over bar Lambda and (p) over barp -> (Xi) over bar+Xi(-). The results, presented in detail in this paper, show that hyperon-antihyperon pairs from these reactions can be exclusively reconstructed with high efficiency and very low background contamination. In addition, the polarisation and spin correlations have been studied, exploiting the weak, self-analysing decay of hyperons and antihyperons. Two independent approaches to the finite efficiency have been applied and evaluated: one standard multidimensional efficiency correction approach, and one efficiency independent approach. The applicability of the latter was thoroughly evaluated for all channels, beam momenta and observables. The standard method yields good results in all cases, and shows that spin observables can be studied with high precision and accuracy already in the first phase of data taking with PANDA.

The PANDA experiment at FAIR offers unique possibilities for performing hyperon physics. The detector will enable the reconstruction of both hyperon and antihyperon, which will be created together in proton-antiproton collisions. This enables investigations of the strong interaction in the non-perturbative regime. Due to their relatively long-lived nature, the hyperons impose a particular challenge on the track reconstruction and event building. In order to exploit the large expected reaction rates to the fullest, PANDA will utilize a fully software-based event filtering. Therefore, reconstructing hyperons for such a filter requires online track reconstruction that can handle particles created a measurable distance away from the interaction point and, at the same time, operate on free streaming data is needed. Until antiprotons are available at PANDA, a part of the hyperon program can be carried out with the predecessor, PANDA@HADES using a proton beam. 

In this thesis, investigations of the detector signatures from the decay channels Λ → pπ^-, Ξ^- → Λπ^- and Ω^- → Λ K^-  produced in      →      reactions are presented. The detector signatures guide the subsequent track reconstruction algorithms. A candidate for online track reconstruction algorithms on free streaming data based on a 4D Cellular Automaton has been developed and is benchmarked. It utilizes information from the PANDA straw tube tracker and is agnostic to the point of origin of the particle. The track reconstruction quality assurance procedure and results from the tracking at different event rates are also presented. Finally, extrapolation algorithms for including hit information from additional detectors in the tracks are outlined. 

In order to maximize the potential of the predecessor experiment PANDA@HADES, a kinematic fitting procedure has been developed for HADES that combines geometric the decay vertex information of neutral particles and track parameters such as momentum. Benchmark studies on simulated data from the channel p(3.5 GeV)p → ΛK⁺p are presented as well as tests of the kinematic fit on experimental data from 2007.

The PANDA (anti-Proton ANnihilation at DArmstadt) experiment at the future FAIR (Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research) offers unique possibilities for performing hyperon physics.The almost full 4π coverage of the detector will enable the reconstruction of both hyperon and antihyperon which will be created together in proton-antiproton collisions. This enables investigations of the strong interaction in the non-perturbative regime. The relevant degrees of freedom for hyperon production is not yet known here and the self analyzing wek decay ofhyperons enables the measurement of spin observables that could discriminate between different production models. Hyperons are generally identified through their decay products. Due to their relatively long-lived nature, the displaced decay vertices of the hyperons impose a particular challenge on the track reconstruction and event building. PANDA will utilize a fully software-based event filtering. Track reconstruction will be crucial for the online filtering where it willbe used together with the event building. Therefore, track reconstruction that works well for particles created a measurable distance away from the interaction point and can work on free streaming data is therefore crucial for the reconstruction of hyperons.

In this thesis, investigations of the detector signatures from the decay channels Λ→pπ^-, Ξ^-→Λπ^- and Ω^-→ΛK^- are presented. The detector signatures guide the subsequent track reconstruction algorithms. A candidate for online track reconstruction algorithms on free streaming data based on a 4D Cellular Automaton clustering procedure has been developed and is reported on. The Cellular Automaton procedure utilizes information from the PANDA straw tube tracker. It does not assume the interaction point as a constraint which makes it suitable for tracking hyperon decay products. The track reconstruction quality assurance procedure and the results from the tracking at different event rates are also presented. The 3D version of the algorithm, where only spatial information is utilized, is compared to the 4D version. Results show that utilizing the time-stamp information in the clusterization procedure increases the tracking efficiency at higher interaction rates. In addition, the fake rate of tracks is suppressed at high erevent rates with the 4D Cellular Automaton. Finally, extrapolation algorithms for including hit information from additional detectors in the tracks reconstructed in the straw tube tracker of PANDA are outlined.

The future PANDA experiment at FAIR aims to investigate a wide range of physics processes in antiproton-proton collisions at rates of up to 20 MHz, while employing a purely software-based event filter. To educate the trigger decisions, a full event reconstruction has to be carried out in real time. This challenge is amplified when considering tracks from particles with long lifetimes and displaced decay vertices, which add to the complexity of the reconstruction algorithms. Here, we present modifications to a cellular automaton-based track finder taking detector time-stamps into account in addition to spatial information, as well as several pattern recognition methods for longitudinal track reconstrucion with PANDA's Straw Tube Tracker.

This paper summarises a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation study for precision resonance energy scan measurements. Apart from the proof of principle for natural width and line shape measurements of very narrow resonances with PANDA, the achievable sensitivities are quantified for the concrete example of the charmonium-like X(3872) state discussed to be exotic, and for a larger parameter space of various assumed signal cross-sections, input widths and luminosity combinations. PANDA is the only experiment that will be able to perform precision resonance energy scans of such narrow states with quantum numbers of spin and parities that differ from JPC=1--.