AMBER -- A Strong-Interaction Facility at CERN

Abstract

AMBER (NA66) is a fixed-target facility at the M2 beam line of CERN SPS, which performs worldwide unique research on the internal structure and the excitation spectrum of hadrons. The approved first phase of the experiment focuses on three main physics topics: (i) the measurement of the production cross section of antiprotons in $p-\text{He}$ and $p-p/d$ collisions over a wide energy range; (ii) the precise measurement of the electric form factor of protons at small momentum transfers using a high-energy muon beam; (iii) the determination of pion and kaon quark PDFs through Drell-Yan and charmonium production measurements with negative and positive meson beams. Phase-2 will focus on measurements with an intense kaon beam. The high-energy muon, pion and kaon beams required for these measurements are only available at CERN.