Measurement of kaonic atoms at DAΦNE

The DA Phi NE electron-positron collider at the Frascati National Laboratories has made available a unique "beam" of negative kaons providing unprecedented conditions for the study of the low-energy kaon-nucleon interaction, a field still largely unexplored. The DEAR (DA Phi NE Exotic Atom Research) experiment at DA Phi NE and its successor SIDDHARTA (SIlicon Drift Detector for Hadronic Atom Research by Timing Application) aim at a precision measurement of the strong interaction shift and width of the fundamental Is level, via the measurement of the x-ray transitions to this level, for kaonic hydrogen and kaonic deuterium. The final aim is to extract the isospin dependent antikaon-nucleon scattering lengths which contribute to the understanding of aspects of chiral symmetry breaking in the strangeness sector. Other kaonic atoms transition measurements possible at DA Phi NE are under study.