How a Bent Crystal Could Polarize the Antiprotons

Particles scattered off nuclear targets acquire a polarization if the nuclei have a nonzero analyzing power. This effect is enhanced when particles traverse a bent crystal. Such an enhancement under certain assumptions allows one to get a beam polarization of more than 50% after extraction of a primary beam with a bent crystal. Since the equilibrium condition between centrifugal and electrostatic forces during the channeling are identical for protons and antiprotons this gives us a hope that one can observe an antiproton beam channeling at a reasonable efficiency and get it polarized. It is also possible to observe a volume reflection of antiprotons. The detection of beam polarization resulting from channeling would open a window to a completely unexplored physics domain at very small transfer momentum which is hardly if not at all could be reached with other methods