PANDA (anti-proton annihiliation at Darmstadt) is planned to be one of the four main experiments at the future international accelerator complex FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany. It is going to address fundamental questions of hadron physics and quantum chromodynamics using cooled antiproton beams with a high intensity and and momenta between 1.5 and 15 GeV/c. PANDA is designed to reach a maximum luminosity of 2 × 10³² cm⁻² s. Most of the physics programs require an excellent particle identification (PID). The PID of hadronic states at the forward endcap of the target spectrometer will be done by a fast and compact Cherenkov detector that uses the detection of internally reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) principle. It is designed to cover the polar angle range from 5° to 22° and to provide a separation power for the separation of charged pions and kaons up to 3 standard deviations (s.d.) for particle momenta up to 4 GeV/c in order to cover the important particle phase space. This document describes the technical design and the expected performance of the novel PANDA disc DIRC detector that has not been used in any other high energy physics experiment before. The performance has been studied with Monte-Carlo simulations and various beam tests at DESY and CERN. The final design meets all PANDA requirements and guarantees sufficient safety margins.

This paper reports on Monte Carlo simulation results for future measurements of the moduli of time-like proton electromagnetic form factors, vertical bar G(E)vertical bar and vertical bar G(M)vertical bar, using the (p) over barp -> mu(+)mu(-) reaction at PANDA (FAIR). The electromagnetic form factors are fundamental quantities parameterizing the electric and magnetic structure of hadrons. This work estimates the statistical and total accuracy with which the form factors can be measured at PANDA, using an analysis of simulated data within the PandaRoot software framework. The most crucial background channel is (p) over barp -> pi(+)pi(-), due to the very similar behavior of muons and pions in the detector. The suppression factors are evaluated for this and all other relevant background channels at different values of antiproton beam momentum. The signal/background separation is based on a multivariate analysis, using the Boosted Decision Trees method. An expected background subtraction is included in this study, based on realistic angular distributions of the background contribution. Systematic uncertainties are considered and the relative total uncertainties of the form factor measurements are presented.

The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany, provides unique possibilities for a new generation of hadron-, nuclear- and atomic physics experiments. The future antiProton ANnihilations at DArmstadt (PANDA or PANDA) experiment at FAIR will offer a broad physics programme, covering different aspects of the strong interaction. Understanding the latter in the non-perturbative regime remains one of the greatest challenges in contemporary physics. The antiproton-nucleon interaction studied with PANDA provides crucial tests in this area. Furthermore, the high-intensity, low-energy domain of PANDA allows for searches for physics beyond the Standard Model, e.g. through high precision symmetry tests. This paper takes into account a staged approach for the detector setup and for the delivered luminosity from the accelerator. The available detector setup at the time of the delivery of the first antiproton beams in the HESR storage ring is referred to as the Phase One setup. The physics programme that is achievable during Phase One is outlined in this paper.

The study of baryon excitation spectra provides insight into the inner structure of baryons. So far, most of the world-wide efforts have been directed towards N * and Delta spectroscopy. Nevertheless, the study of the double and triple strange baryon spectrum provides independent information to the N * and Delta spectra. The future antiproton experiment (P) over bar ANDA will provide direct access to final states containing a (Xi) over bar Xi pair, for which production cross sections up to mu b are expected in (p) over barp reactions. With a luminosity of L = 10(31) cm(-2) s(-1) in the first phase of the experiment, the expected cross sections correspond to a production rate of similar to 10(6) events/day. With a nearly 4 pi detector acceptance, (P) over bar ANDA will thus be a hyperon factory. In this study, reactions of the type (p) over barp -> (Xi) over bar (+)Xi*(-) as well as (p) over barp -> (Xi) over bar*(+)Xi(-) with various decay modes are investigated. For the exclusive reconstruction of the signal events a full decay tree fit is used, resulting in reconstruction efficiencies between 3 and 5%. This allows high statistics data to be collected within a few weeks of data taking.

The antiproton experiment PANDA at FAIR is designed to bring hadron physics to a new level in terms of scope, precision and accuracy. In this work, its unique capability for studies of hyperons is outlined. We discuss ground-state hyperons as diagnostic tools to study non-perturbative aspects of the strong interaction, and fundamental symmetries. New simulation studies have been carried out for two benchmark hyperon-antihyperon production channels: p¯p→Λ¯Λ and p¯p→Ξ¯+Ξ−. The results, presented in detail in this paper, show that hyperon-antihyperon pairs from these reactions can be exclusively reconstructed with high efficiency and very low background contamination. In addition, the polarisation and spin correlations have been studied, exploiting the weak, self-analysing decay of hyperons and antihyperons. Two independent approaches to the finite efficiency have been applied and evaluated: one standard multidimensional efficiency correction approach, and one efficiency independent approach. The applicability of the latter was thoroughly evaluated for all channels, beam momenta and observables. The standard method yields good results in all cases, and shows that spin observables can be studied with high precision and accuracy already in the first phase of data taking with PANDA.

The PANDA  experiment (antiproton annihilation at Darmstadt) is designed for studies of the strong force in the transition region between perturbative and non-perturbative quantum chromo dynamics (QCD). It will be built and placed at the high-energy storage ring, HESR, at FAIR (Facility for antiproton and ion research) in Darmstadt and start its first experiments in 2025. In the HESR antiprotons with a momentum in the range 1.5 GeV/c to 15 GeV/c will collide with a fixed hydrogen or nuclear target. The PANDA detector is designed for e.g. detailed spectroscopy of hadrons produced in antiproton-proton interactions. In 2026 PANDA will be upgraded with the implementation and completion of some subdetectors, e.g. the EDD (end disc detector of internal reflected Cherenkov light) for charged particle velocity measurements in the forward direction.

This thesis summarizes preparatory experiments with a PANDA forward endcap electromagnetic calorimeter (EMC) prototype, performed at the tagged photon facility at the MAX IV laboratory in Lund to study the response to photons with energies below 100 MeV using vacuum photo tetrodes (VPTTs) as photo sensors. The results show that with VPTT photo sensors, in combination with sampling ADCs, the technical design report (TDR) requirement, with regard to energy resolution, can be fulfilled even for energies below 100 MeV. It is also shown that the energy resolution is not significantly influenced by the insertion of the EDD in front of the forward endcap EMC.

This paper summarises a comprehensive Monte Carlo simulation study for precision resonance energy scan measurements. Apart from the proof of principle for natural width and line shape measurements of very narrow resonances with PANDA, the achievable sensitivities are quantified for the concrete example of the charmonium-like X(3872) state discussed to be exotic, and for a larger parameter space of various assumed signal cross-sections, input widths and luminosity combinations. PANDA is the only experiment that will be able to perform precision resonance energy scans of such narrow states with quantum numbers of spin and parities that differ from JPC=1--.

The antiProton annihilation at Darmstadt (PANDA) experiment is designed for studies of the strong force. It will be built and placed in the high energy storage ring (HESR) at the facility for antiproton and ion research (FAIR) in Darmstadt. The beam of the HESR consists of anti protons in an energy range from 0.8 GeV to 14 GeV and will collide with a fixed hydrogen target. The detectors of PANDA are designed for e.g. detailed hadron spectroscopy by detecting the anti-proton-proton interactions in the transition region between perturbative and non perturbative quantum chromo dynamics (QCD).This thesis summarizes preparatory experiments with a PANDA forward endcap ElectroMagnetic Calorimeter (EMC) prototype performed at MAX IV laboratory, for studying the response to photon energies below 100 MeV using vacuum photo tetrodes (VPTTs) as photo sensors. The prototype was cooled down to -25 °C. Two different sets of VPTTs were investigated as well as two different analog to ditigital converters (ADCs), peak-sensing ADCs and sampling ADCs. The results show that with VPTT photosensors, in combination with sampling ADCs, the technical design report (TDR) requirement, with regard to energy resolution, can be fulfilled even at low energies.

The (P) over bar ANDA (anti-Proton ANnihiliation at DArmstadt) experiment will be one of the four flagship experiments at the new international accelerator complex FAIR (Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany. (P) over bar ANDA will address fundamental questions of hadron physics and quantum chromodynamics using high-intensity cooled antiproton beams with momenta between 1.5 and 15 GeV/c and a design luminosity of up to 2 x 10(32) cm(-2) S-1. Excellent particle identification (PID) is crucial to the success of the (P) over bar ANDA physics program. Hadronic PID in the barrel region of the target spectrometer will be performed by a fast and compact Cherenkov counter using the detection of internally reflected Cherenkov light (DIRC) technology. It is designed to cover the polar angle range from 22 degrees to 140 degrees and will provide at least 3 standard deviations (s.d.) pi/K separation up to 3.5 GeV/c, matching the expected upper limit of the final state kaon momentum distribution from simulation. This documents describes the technical design and the expected performance of the (P) over bar ANDA Barrel DIRC detector. The design is based on the successful BaBar DIRC with several key improvements. The performance and system cost were optimized in detailed detector simulations and validated with full system prototypes using particle beams at GSI and CERN. The final design meets or exceeds the PID goal of clean pi/K separation with at least 3 s.d. over the entire phase space of charged kaons in the Barrel DIRC.

The exclusive charmonium production process in (P) over barp annihilation with an associated pi 0 meson (p) over barp -> J/psi pi(0) is studied in the framework of QCD collinear factorization. The feasibility of measuring this reaction through the J/psi -> e(+) e(-) decay channel with the AntiProton ANnihilation at DArmstadt ((P) over bar ANDA) experiment is investigated. Simulations on signal reconstruction efficiency as well as the background rejection from various sources including the (P) over barp -> pi(+)pi(-)pi(0) and (p) over barp -> J/psi pi(0)pi(0) reactions are performed with PANDAROOT, the simulation and analysis software framework of the (P) over bar ANDA experiment. It is shown that the measurement can be done at (P) over bar ANDA with significant constraining power under the assumption of an integrated luminosity attainable in four to five months of data taking at the maximum design luminosity.