Very-high-energy antiproton physics: colliding 1-TeV 'antiquarks' on heavy nuclei

Dorfan et al. (1965) demonstrated experimentally that one can extend the mass range of an accelerator by using the Fermi motion of nucleons inside heavy nuclear targets. The development of antiproton sources and intense pion beams at Fermilab and CERN makes possible a dramatic enhancement of this mechanism. The authors show that the increase in threshold production using antiprotons or pions rather than protons far exceeds the loss in luminosity. Furthermore, by using antiprotons in an internal-target experiment, the modest instantaneous rates and large signal/background ratio permit detailed study of the final state. (19 refs).