Kaonic Atoms to Investigate Global Symmetry Breaking

Abstract

Kaonic atoms measure the antikaon-nucleus interaction at almost zero relative energy, allowing one to determine basic low-energy quantum chromodynamics (QCD) quantities, namely, the antikaon-nucleon ( K ¯ N) scattering lengths. The latter are important for extracting the sigma terms which are built on the symmetry breaking part of the Hamiltonian, thereby providing a measure of chiral and SU(3) symmetries breaking. After discussing the sigma terms and their relations to the kaonic atoms, we describe the most precise measurement in the literature of kaonic hydrogen, performed at LNF-INFN by the SIDDHARTA experiment. Kaonic deuterium is still to be measured, and two experiments are planned. The first, SIDDHARTA-2 at LNF-INFN was installed on DA Φ NE in spring 2019 and will collect data in 2020. The second, E57 at J-PARC, will become operative in 2021.