Precision measurement of the $3d \to 2p$ x-ray energy in kaonic $^4$He

Okada, S.; Beer, G.; Bhang, H.; Cargnelli, M.; Chiba, J.; Choi, Seonho; Curceanu, C.; Fukuda, Y.; Hanaki, T.; Hayano, R. S.; Iio, M.; Ishikawa, T.; Ishimoto, S.; Ishiwatari, T.; Itahashi, K.; Iwai, M.; Iwasaki, M.; Juhász, B.; Kienle, P.; Marton, J.; Matsuda, Y.; Ohnishi, H.; Outa, H.; Sato, M.; Schmid, P.; Suzuki, S.; Suzuki, T.; Tatsuno, H.; Tomono, D.; Widmann, E.; Yamazaki, T.; Yim, H.; Zmeskal, J.

Precision measurement of the $3d \to 2p$ x-ray energy in kaonic $^4$He

Authors

Description

We have measured the Balmer-series x-rays of kaonic $^4$He atoms using novel large-area silicon drift x-ray detectors in order to study the low-energy $\bar{K}$-nucleus strong interaction. The energy of the $3d \to 2p$ transition was determined to be 6467 $\pm$ 3 (stat) $\pm$ 2 (syst) eV. The resulting strong-interaction energy-level shift is in agreement with theoretical calculations, thus eliminating a long-standing discrepancy between theory and experiment.
12 pages, 4 figues, submitted to Physics Letters B