Fast deuteron production from antiproton annihilation at rest on carbon and uranium targets

Deuteron yields from 20–350 MeV kinetic energy in antiproton annihilation at rest in¹²C and²³⁸U targets are compared with a coalescence model calculation. Agreement of the data with the model up to approximately 80 MeV is good. However, from 80 to 350 MeV the model increasingly underestimates the yield, by as much as on order of magnitude. These results, along with previously reported failures to explain proton spectra with first order rescattering of pions, suggest that other mechanisms are manifest in relatively rare, high energy light nucleus emission, e.g.B > 0 annihilations or possible six quark interactions.Work supported in part by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation