Studies of discrete symmetries in decays of positronium atoms

¹ Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, 30-348 Cracow, Poland
² INFN, Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, CP 13, Via E. Fermi 40, Frascati, I-00044, Italy
³ Department of Nuclear Methods, Institute of Physics, Maria Curie-Skłodowska University, 20-031 Lublin, Poland
⁴ Faculty of Physics, University of Vienna, Boltzmanngasse 5, 1090 Vienna, Austria
⁵ Świerk Computing Center, National Centre for Nuclear Research, 05-400 Otwock-Świerk, Poland
⁶ High Energy Physics Division, National Center for Nuclear Research, 05-400 Otwock-Świerk, Poland
⁷ Department of Physics, College of Education for Pure Sciences, University of Mosul, Mosul, Iraq

^* e-mail: eryk.czerwinski@uj.edu.pl

Published online: 25 June 2018

Abstract

A positronium - a bound state of electron and positron - is an eigenstate of parity and charge conjugation operators which decays into photons. It is a unique laboratory to study discrete symmetries whose precision is limited, in principle, by the effects due to the weak interactions expected at the level of 10⁻¹⁴ and photon-photon interactions expected at the level of 10⁻⁹.

The Jagiellonian Positron Emission Tomograph (J-PET) is a detector for medical imaging as well as for physics studies involving detection of electronpositron annihilation into photons. The physics case covers the areas of discrete symmetries studies and genuine multipartite entanglement. The J-PET detector has high angular and time resolution and allows for determination of spin of the positronium and the momenta and polarization vectors of annihilation quanta. In this article, we present the potential of the J-PET system for studies of discrete symmetries in decays of positronium atoms.