A Dedicated 0° Facility for Threshold Particle Production Studies at COSY

A universal facility is in preparation for the study of particle production in proton-nucleus reactions below the nucleon-nucleon threshold. The device will be located at the internal target position TP2 at COSY-Jülich and will consist of three dipole magnets. This 0° 'Facility will separate ejectile from the circulating proton beam and allow momentum and angle analysis both for positively and negatively charged particles. A major goal of the experimental program is the investigation of the K⁺-meson production at projectile energies below the NN threshold. The detector concept for these studies is described and also an overview over further planned experiments is given.