Antiproton-nucleus electromagnetic annihilation as a way to access the proton timelike form factors

Contrary to the reaction \( \bar{{p}}\) p \( \rightarrow\) e ⁺ e ^- with a high-momentum incident antiproton on a free target proton at rest, in which the invariant mass M of the e ⁺ e ^- pair is necessarily much larger than the \( \bar{{p}}\) p mass 2m , in the reaction \( \bar{{p}}\) d \( \rightarrow\) e ⁺ e ^- n the value of M can take values near or below the \( \bar{{p}}\) p mass. In the antiproton-deuteron electromagnetic annihilation, this allows to access the proton electromagnetic form factors in the timelike region of q² near the \( \bar{{p}}\) p threshold. We estimate the cross-section \(d\sigma _{\bar pd \to e^ + e^ - n} /d\mathcal{M}\) for an antiproton beam momentum of 1.5GeV/c. We find that near the \( \bar{{p}}\) p threshold this cross-section is about 1pb/MeV. The case of heavy-nuclei target is also discussed. Elements of experimental feasibility are presented for the process \( \bar{{p}}\) d \( \rightarrow\) e ⁺ e ^- n in the context of the \( \overline{{{\rm P}}}\) ANDA project.