Physics Programme of PANDA at FAIR

The standard model and Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) have undergone
rigorous tests at distances much shorter than the size of a nucleon.
Up to now, the predicted phenomena are reproduced rather well.
However, at distances comparable to the size of a nucleon, new
experimental results keep appearing which cannot be described
consistently by effective theories based on QCD. The physics of
strange and charmed quarks holds the potential to connect the two
energy domains, interpolating between the limiting scales of QCD. This
is the regime which will be explored using the future Antiproton
Annihilations at Darmstadt (PANDA) experiment at the Facility for
Antiproton and Ion Research (FAIR).

I will detail some of the most relevant physics topics and why PANDA
is the ideal detector to study them. Precision studies of hadron
formation in the charmonium region will greatly advance our
understanding of hadronic structure.  It may reveal particles beyond
the two and three-quark configuration, some of which are predicted to
have exotic quantum numbers in that mass region.  It will deepen the
understanding of the charmonium spectrum, where unpredicted states
have been found recently by the B-factories.  To date the structure of
the nucleon, in terms of parton distributions, has been mainly
investigated using scattering experiments. Complementary information
will be acquired measuring electro-magnetic final states at PANDA.