Novel concept for low-energy antineutron production and its application for antineutron scattering experiments

Abstract

Extensive data of antiproton scattering cross sections with protons and nuclei have advanced our understanding of hadronic interactions with antinucleons. However, low-energy antineutron scattering data are scarce, thereby limiting our understanding of the S-wave antinucleon-nucleon and antinucleon-nucleus interactions. We present a novel production scheme of extremely low-energy antineutrons that could remedy this situation. This method is based on backward charge-exchange reaction ($p\bar{p}\to n\bar{n}$), and can reach the lowest momentum of 9 MeV/c, which would be well suited to study of the S-wave antinucleon-nucleon or antinucleon-nucleus interactions.