Kaonic atoms measurements at the DAΦNE collider: The SIDDHARTA experiment

Abstract

This work presents the SIDDHARTA experimental results on the kaonic hydrogen and helium atoms, reviewing some fundamental aspects of the physics case. After an introduction about the fundamental role played by these bound systems and their X-ray transitions measurements in testing the reliability of the Chiral Perturbation Theory as a realisation of Quantum Chromodynamics at low energies, a short review of the light kaonic atoms physics is given. The review, highlighting the experimental challenges, aims to better understand the SIDDHARTA performances to obtain the most precise spectroscopic X-ray measurements of these light kaonic atoms. A description of the SIDDHARTA apparatus is followed by the presentation of the results on kaonic hydrogen and helium, nowadays the most precise available in literature. © Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd.