Journal (JOU)

A new generation of experiments is being developed, where the challenge of separating rare signal processes from background at high intensities requires a change
of trigger paradigm. At the future PANDA experiment at FAIR, hardware triggers will be abandoned and instead a purely software-based system will be used.
This requires novel reconstruction methods with the ability to process data from
many events simultaneously.
A 4D tracking algorithm based on the cellular automaton has been developed which will utilize the timing information from detector signals. Simulation studies
have been performed to test its performance on the foreseen free-streaming data from the PANDA detector. For this purpose, a quality assurance procedure for
tracking on free-streaming data was implemented in the PANDA software. The studies show that at higher interaction rates, 4D tracking performs better than
the 3D algorithm in terms of efficiency, 84% compared to 77%. The fake track suppression is also greatly improved, compared to the 3D tracking with roughly
a 50% decrease in the ghost rate.

The antiproton experiment PANDA at FAIR is designed to take hadron physics to a new level
in scope, precision and accuracy. In this work, its unique capability for studies of hyperons is outlined. We
discuss hyperons as diagnostic tool 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. The results, presented in detail in this paper, show that hyperon-antihyperon pairs
can be exclusively reconstructed with high efficiency and very low background contamination. In addition,
the polarisation and spin correlations have been studied, exploiting the 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 show that spin observables can be studied with
high precision and accuracy already during the first phase of data taking with PANDA.

The PANDA (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.
PANDA 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 2×10^32 cm−2 s−1.
Excellent particle identification (PID) is crucial to the success
of the PANDA 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° to 140° and
will provide at least 3 standard deviations (s.d.) π/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 PANDA 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 π/K separation with at least 3 s.d. over the entire phase space of charged
kaons in the Barrel DIRC.

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 a precision resonance energy scan of such a narrow state with quantum numbers of spin and parities that differs from $J^{PC} = 1^{--}$.

The Facility for Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany, provides unique possibilities for a new generation of nuclear-, hadron- and atomic physics experiments. The future PANDA experiment at FAIR will offer a broad physics programme with emphasis on different aspects of hadron physics. Understanding the strong interaction in the perturbative regime remains one of the greatest challenges in contemporary physics and hadrons provide several important keys. However, financial and technical constraints enforce a staged approach to the detector setup. In this document, we will present the setup available at the time of the first anti-proton beam from the HESR, \textit{i.e.} the \textit{Phase One} setup and outline the physics programme.

In this paper different propagation methods for the extraploation of tracks from the STT to the EMC are studied and a new, momentum and particle type dependent quality cut was introduced to improve the completness and the purity of charged candidates.

The design of straw tube detector modules developed for the PANDA Forward Tracker is
presented. One module consists of 32 straws with 10mm diameter, arranged in two staggered
layers, and has a very low material budget of only 8:8 x10^-4 X0. The overpressure of the working gas
mixture of 1 bar makes the module self-supporting and enables the use of lightweight and compact
support frames. Detection planes in the Forward Tracker consist of modules mounted closely,
without gaps, next to each other on a support frame. A module can be mounted and dismounted
from the frame without the need to remove the neighborig modules, enabling fast repairs. Technical
details of the detector design and the assembly procedure of the straw tubes and the straw modules
as well as results of performed tests of the modules are given.

The results of simulations for future measurements of electromagnetic form factors at \PANDA (FAIR) in frame of the PandaRoot software are reported. The statistical precision at which the proton form factors can be determined is estimated. The signal channel $\bar p p \to e^+ e^-$ is studied on the basis of two different but consistent procedures. The main background is identified in the $\bar p p \to \pi^+ \pi^-$ channel. The suppression of this background, the background versus signal efficiency, and the of the statistical errors on the extracted proton form factors have been also evaluated according to the two different procedures. The comparison with older predictions based on an old framework shows consistency of the results and a slightly better precision is achieved here in a large range of momentum transfer, assuming the nominal conditions of beam and detector performances.