Hypernuclear spectroscopy with heavy Iin beams: The HypHI project at GSI and towards FAIR

Until recently hypernuclei have been mainly studied via induced reactions of meson- or electron-beams on stable target materials, therefore the isospin of the produced hypernuclei is close to that of the target nucleus. In heavy ion collisions, hyperons are produced in the participant region and can be coalesced in the projectile fragment forming a hypernucleus in the projectile rapidity region. Isospin of the produced hypernucleus is widely distributed due to the nature of fragmentation reactions, therefore, this production method gives an opportunity to study neutron or proton rich hypernuclei. Furthermore, with this method, the produced hypernuclei can be separated and their magnetic moments can be measured for the first time. The HypHI collaboration aims to perform precise hypernuclear spectroscopy with stable heavy ion beams and rare isotope beams at GSI and FAIR. We are currently preparing for the first experiment (Phase 0) planned in 2009 with 6Li beams at 2 A GeV impinged on a carbon target to demonstrate the feasibility of the precise hypernuclear spectroscopy by identifying light hypernuclei mainly such as 3ΛH, 4ΛH and 5ΛHe. In the presentation, an overview of the HypHI project and the detail of the Phase 0 experiment will be discussed.