Measurement of the isospin-filtering dd → 4He K+K- reaction at Q = 39 MeV

The total cross-section for the dd → 4HeK+K− reaction has been measured at a beam momentum of 3.7GeV/c, corresponding to an excess energy of 39MeV, which is the maximum possible atthe Cooler Synchrotron COSY-Jülich. A deuterium cluster-jet target and the ANKE forward magnetic spectrometer, placed inside the storage ring, have been employed in this investigation. We find a total cross-section of σtot < 14 pb, which brings into question the viability of investigating the dd → 4He a0(980)reaction as a means of studying isospin violation.