AAfrag 2.01: Interpolation routines for Monte Carlo results on secondary production including light antinuclei in hadronic interactions

Abstract

Light antinuclei, like antideuteron and antihelium-3, are ideal probes for new, exotic physics because their astrophysical backgrounds are suppressed at low energies. In order to exploit fully the inherent discovery potential of light antinuclei, a reliable description of their production cross sections in cosmic ray interactions is crucial. We provide therefore the cross sections of antideuteron and antihelium-3 production in $pp$, $p$He, He$p$, HeHe, $\bar pp$ and $\bar p$He collisions at energies relevant for secondary production in the Milky Way, in a tabulated form which is convinient to use. These predictions are based on QGSJET-II-04m and the state of the art coalescence model WiFunC, which evaluates the coalesence probability on an event-by-event basis, including both momentum correlations and the dependence on the emission volume. In addition, we comment on the importance of a Monte Carlo description of the antideuteron production and on the use of event generators in general. In particular, we discuss the effect of two-particle momentum correlations provided by Monte Carlo event generators on antinuclei production.