Detecting and Identifying Heavy Nuclei and Antinuclei with Standard Detectors

Abstract

Most data gathered from high energy experiments at colliders are analyzed assuming that particles stable enough to not decay in the detector volume, and able to interact strongly or electromagnetically, must be electrons, muons, protons, neutrons, photons, kaons, and charged pions, or their antiparticles. While light nuclei and antinuclei such as (anti)deuterons have been detected, we argue that it is experimentally interesting to look for even heavier nuclei in high energy collisions. To this end, we point out that using only tracking and calorimetry information it is, in principle, possible to also search for high energy nuclei and antinuclei and determine, with errors, their charge Z and atomic weight A.