The K¯N system at threshold is a sensitive testing ground for low energy QCD, especially for the explicit chiral symmetry breaking. Therefore, we have measured the K-series X-rays of kaonic hydrogen atoms at the DAΦNE electron–positron collider of Laboratori Nazionali di Frascati, and have determined the most precise values of the strong-interaction energy-level shift and width of the 1s atomic state. As X-ray detectors, we used large-area silicon drift detectors having excellent energy and timing resolution, which were developed especially for the SIDDHARTA experiment. The shift and width were determined to be ϵ1s=−283±36(stat)±6(syst) eV and Γ1s=541±89(stat)±22(syst) eV, respectively. The new values will provide vital constraints on the theoretical description of the low-energy K¯N interaction

The first observation of the kaonic 3He 3d→2p transition was made, using slow K− mesons stopped in a gaseous 3He target. The kaonic atom X-rays were detected with large-area silicon drift detectors using the timing information of the K+K− pairs of ϕ-meson decays produced by the DAΦNE e+e− collider. The strong interaction shift of the kaonic 3He 2p state was determined to be −2±2(stat)±4(syst) eV.

We report the measurement of K− absorption processes in the Σ0p final state and the first exclusive measurement of the two nucleon absorption (2NA) with the KLOE detector. The 2NA process without further interactions is found to be 9% of the sum of all other contributing processes, including absorption on three and more nucleons or 2NA followed by final state interactions with the residual nucleons. We also determine the possible contribution of the ppK− bound state to the Σ0p final state. The yield of ppK−/Kstop− is found to be (0.044±0.009stat−0.005+0.004syst)⋅10−2 but its statistical significance based on an F-test is only 1σ