Antiproton-nucleus reactions at intermediate energies

Abstract

Antiproton-induced reactions on nuclei at the beam energies from hundreds MeV up to several GeV provide an excellent opportunity to study interactions of the antiproton and secondary particles (mesons, baryons and antibaryons) with nucleons. Antiproton projectile is unique in the sense that most of annihilation particles are relatively slow in the target nucleus frame. Hence, the prehadronic effects do not much influence their interactions with the nucleons of the nuclear residue. Moreover, the particles with momenta less than about 1 GeV/c are sensitive to the nuclear mean field potentials. This paper discusses the microscopic transport calculations of the antiproton-nucleus reactions and is focused on three related problems: (i) the antiproton potential determination, (ii) possible formation of strongly bound antiproton-nucleus systems, and (iii) strangeness production.