The measurement of the E2 nuclear resonance effects in kaonic atoms at DAΦNE: the KAMEO proposal

Abstract

KAMEO (Kaonic Atoms Measuring Nuclear Resonance Effects Observables) is a proposal for an experiment aiming to perform the first consistent measurement of the E2 nuclear resonance effects in kaonic molybdenum A=94,96,98,100 isotopes. The E2 nuclear resonance mixes atomic states, due to the electrical quadrupole excitation of nuclear rotational states. It occurs in atoms having the energy of a nuclear excitation state closely matching an atomic de-excitation state energy, and affects the rates of X-ray atomic transitions matching the energy of the resonance. The measurement E2 nuclear resonance effect in KMO isotopes allows the study of the strong kaon-nucleus interaction in a rotational excited nuclear state. Moreover, the effect enables the K- to access an inner atomic level not easily reachable by the kaon normal cascade, due to the nuclear absorption. The KAMEO proposed apparatus consists of 4 enriched Mo A=94, 96, 98, 100 isotope strips, exposed to the kaons produced by the DAΦNE collider, for kaonic atoms formation, with a highpurity germanium detector, cooled with liquid nitrogen, used to measure the X-ray atomic transitions. The DAΦNE collider is located at the National Laboratories of Frascati (LNF-INFN), in Italy. It is already suited for kaonic atoms measurement by the SIDDHARTA-2 collaboration.