Search Results (21 total)

The data analysis for the reaction ¹H(e,e^'π⁺)n, which was used to determine values for the charged pion form factor F_π for values of Q²= 0.6–1.6 GeV², has been repeated with careful inspection of all steps and special attention to systematic uncertainties. Also the method used to extract F_π from the measured longitudinal cross section was critically reconsidered. Final values for the separated longitudinal and transverse cross sections and the extracted values of F_π are presented.

Electroproduction of the ω meson was investigated in the ¹H(e,e^′p)ω reaction. The measurement was performed at a four-momentum transfer Q²≈0.5  GeV². Angular distributions of the virtual photon-proton center-of-momentum cross sections have been extracted over the full angular range. These distributions exhibit a strong enhancement over t-channel parity exchange processes in the backward direction. According to a newly developed electroproduction model, this enhancement provides significant evidence of resonance formation in the γ*p→ωp reaction channel.

We report the results from a systematic study of the quasielastic (e,e^′p) reaction on ¹²C,  ⁵⁶Fe, and ¹⁹⁷Au performed at Jefferson Lab. We have measured nuclear transparency and extracted spectral functions (corrected for radiation) over a Q² range of 0.64–3.25  (GeV∕c)² for all three nuclei. In addition, we have extracted separated longitudinal and transverse spectral functions at Q² of 0.64 and 1.8  (GeV∕c)² for these three nuclei (except for ¹⁹⁷Au at the higher Q²). The spectral functions are compared to a number of theoretical calculations. The measured spectral functions differ in detail but not in overall shape from most of the theoretical models. In all three targets the measured spectral functions show considerable excess transverse strength at Q²=0.64  (GeV∕c)², which is much reduced at 1.8  (GeV∕c)².

We report measurements of cross sections for the reaction ¹H(e,e^′K⁺)Y, for both the Λ and Σ⁰ hyperon states, at an invariant mass of W=1.84 GeV and four-momentum transfers 0.5<Q²<2 (GeV/c)². Data were taken for three values of virtual photon polarization ε, allowing the decomposition of the cross sections into longitudinal and transverse components. The Λ data are a revised analysis of prior work, whereas the Σ⁰ results have not been previously reported.

In the two Higgs doublet model type III and in several other extensions of the standard model, there are no discrete symmetries that suppress flavor changing couplings at the tree level. The experimental observation of the ν_μ–ν_τ flavor oscillation may suggest the non-conservation of the lepton number. This would lead to the decay of the type A⁰/H⁰→τ^±μ^∓. We determine the present low energy limit on lepton flavor violating (LFV) couplings from the muon g-2 measurement and discuss the prospects for detecting lepton flavor violating decays at the Fermilab Tevatron and at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The achievable bounds on the LFV coupling parameter λ_τμ are presented.

We study the CERN Large Hadron Collider sensitivity to the charged Higgs boson discovery in the channel H^-→τ_L^-ν in models with a singlet neutrino in large extra dimensions. The observation of such a signal would provide distinctive evidence for these models since in the standard two-Higgs-doublet model type II, H^-→τ_L^-ν is completely suppressed.

The coherent ³He(e,e^′π⁺)³H reaction was measured at Q²=0.4 (GeV/c)² and W=1.6 GeV for two values of the virtual photon polarization, ε, allowing the separation of longitudinal and transverse cross sections. The results from the coherent process on ³He were compared to H(e,e^′π⁺)n data taken at the same kinematics. This marks the first direct comparison of these processes. At these kinematics (p_π=1.1 GeV/c), pion rescattering from the spectator nucleons in the ³He(e,e^′π⁺)³H process is expected to be small, simplifying the comparison to π⁺ production from the free proton.

Separated longitudinal and transverse cross sections for charged pion electroproduction from ¹H, ²H, and ³He were measured at Q²  =  0.4 (GeV/c)² for two values of the invariant mass, W  =  1.15 GeV and W  =  1.60 GeV, in a search for a mass dependence which would signal the effect of nuclear pions. This is the first such study that includes recoil momenta significantly above the Fermi surface. The longitudinal cross section, if dominated by the pion-pole process, should be sensitive to nuclear pion currents. Comparisons of the longitudinal cross section target ratios to a quasifree calculation reveal a significant suppression in ³He at W  =  1.60 GeV. The W  =  1.15 GeV results are consistent with simple estimates of the effect of nuclear pion currents, but are also consistent with pure quasifree production.

Separated longitudinal and transverse structure functions for the reaction ¹H(e,e^′π⁺)n were measured in the momentum transfer region Q²  =  0.6–1.6 (GeV/c)² at a value of the invariant mass W  =  1.95 GeV. New values for the pion charge form factor were extracted from the longitudinal cross section by using a recently developed Regge model. The results indicate that the pion form factor in this region is larger than previously assumed and is consistent with a monopole parametrization fitted to very low Q² elastic data.

A newly obtained sample of inclusive electron-nucleon scattering data has been analyzed for precision tests of quark-hadron duality. The data are in the nucleon resonance region, and span the range 0.3<Q²<5.0 (GeV/c)². Duality is observed both in limited and extended regions around the prominent resonance enhancements. Higher twist contributions to the F₂ structure function are found to be small on average, even in the low Q² regime of ≈0.5 (GeV/c)². Using duality, an average scaling curve is obtained. In all cases, duality appears to be a nontrivial property of the nucleon structure function.

A newly obtained data sample of inclusive electron-nucleon scattering from both hydrogen and deuterium targets is analyzed. These JLab data span the nucleon resonance region up to four-momentum transfers of 5 (GeV/c)². The data are found to follow an average scaling curve. The inclusion of low-momentum transfer data yields a scaling curve resembling deep inelastic neutrino-nucleus scattering data, suggesting a sensitivity to valencelike structure only.

A separation of the longitudinal and transverse ¹²C(e,e^′p) cross sections in the quasifree region has been performed in parallel kinematics at Q² of 0.64 and 1.8 GeV² for initial proton momentum <80 MeV. The separated transverse and longitudinal spectral functions at Q²=0.64 GeV² show significant differences for missing energy between 25 and 60 MeV indicating a breakdown in the single nucleon knockout picture. The transverse spectral functions exhibit definite momentum transfer dependence.

The differential cross section for ²H(γ,d)π⁰ has been measured at deuteron center-of-mass angles of 90° and 136°. This work reports the first data for this reaction above a photon energy of 1 GeV, and permits a test of the apparent constituent counting rule and reduced nuclear amplitude behavior as observed in elastic ed scattering. Measurements were performed up to a photon energy of 4.0 GeV, and are in good agreement with previous lower energy measurements. Overall, the data are inconsistent with both constituent-counting rule and reduced nuclear amplitude predictions.

The differential cross section for the process p(e,e^′p)η has been measured at Q²=2.4 and 3.6 (GeV/c)² at center-of-mass energies encompassing the S₁₁(1535) resonance. The latter point is the highest-Q² exclusive measurement of this process to date. The resonance width and the helicity-1/2 transition amplitude are extracted from the data, and evidence for the possible onset of scaling in this reaction is shown. A lower bound of ≈0.45 is placed on the S₁₁(1535)→pη branching fraction.

We studied the electroproduction of the Δ(1232) resonance via the reaction p(e,e^′p)π⁰ at four-momentum transfers Q²  =  2.8 and 4.0 GeV². This is the highest Q² for which exclusive resonance electroproduction has ever been observed. Decay angular distributions for Δ→pπ⁰ were measured over a wide range of barycentric energies covering the resonance. The N–Δ transition form factor G_M^* and ratios of resonant multipoles E₁₊/M₁₊ and S₁₊/M₁₊ were extracted from the decay angular distributions. These ratios remain small, indicating that perturbative QCD is not applicable for this reaction at these momentum transfers.

The first measurements of the differential cross section for the d(γ,p)n reaction up to 4.0 GeV were performed at the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) at Thomas Jefferson Laboratory. We report the cross sections at the proton center-of-mass angles of 36°, 52°, 69°, and 89°. These results are in reasonable agreement with previous measurements at lower energy. The 89° and 69° data show constituent-counting-rule behavior up to 4.0 GeV photon energy. The 52° and 36° data disagree with the counting-rule behavior. The quantum chromodynamics (QCD) model of nuclear reactions involving reduced amplitudes disagrees with the present data.

The ¹H(e,e^′K⁺)Λ reaction was studied as a function of the squared four-momentum transfer, Q², and the virtual photon polarization, ɛ. For each of four Q² settings, 0.52, 0.75, 1.00, and 2.00 (GeV/c)², the longitudinal and transverse virtual photon cross sections were extracted in measurements at three virtual photon polarizations. The Q² dependence of the σ_L/σ_T ratio differs significantly from current theoretical predictions. This, combined with the precision of the measurement, implies a need for revision of existing calculations.

The ( e,e^′p) reaction was studied on targets of C, Fe, and Au at momentum transfers squared Q² of 0.6, 1.3, 1.8, and 3.3 GeV² in a region of kinematics dominated by quasifree electron-proton scattering. Missing energy and missing momentum distributions are reasonably well described by plane wave impulse approximation calculations with Q² and A dependent corrections that measure the attenuation of the final state protons.

We have measured pion single charge exchange differential cross sections on the proton at 27.5 MeV incident π^- kinetic energy in the center of momentum angular range between 0° and 55°. The extracted cross sections are compared with predictions of the standard pion-nucleon partial wave analysis and found to be in excellent agreement.

We have determined the momentum p_μ⁺ of muons from the decay π⁺→μ⁺ν_μ at rest, by analyzing a surface muon beam in a magnetic spectrometer equipped with a silicon microstrip detector. The result p_μ⁺=(29.792 00±0.000 11) MeV/c leads to a squared muon-neutrino mass of m_νμ²=(-0.016±0.023) MeV², which corresponds to a "laboratory" upper limit of 0.17 MeV (C.L.=0.9) for the muon-neutrino mass. The cosmological upper limit of the neutrino mass (65 eV), the muon mass, and the new value of p_μ⁺ yield the pion mass m_π⁺=(139.570 22±0.000 14) MeV. Alternatively, if one does not use the cosmological upper limit of m_νμ, then a combined fit including the new p_μ⁺ value, and the m_μ⁺ and m_π^- values from other experiments and the CPT theorem (m_π⁺=m_π^-) leads to m_π^±=(139.570 37±0.000 21) MeV. As a side result, the mean kinetic energy of the pions stopped in the production target, made of isotropic graphite, immediately before their decay is found to be T_π⁺―=(0.425±0.016) eV. This is consistent with the hypothesis that the pions are trapped in the potential well of a spherical harmonic oscillator, V(r)=V₀+1 / 2k_sr², with k_s=(1.144±0.088)×10¹⁷ eV/cm².

We have measured total cross sections for the reaction π⁺p→π⁺π^-p at incident pion kinetic energies of 190, 200, 220, 240, and 260 MeV. We use this result to deduce a new value of the chiral symmetry breaking parameter, ξ=-0.25±0.10, in a global constrained fit of the five ππN near-threshold amplitudes. Consequently, we report new soft pion model values for the s-wave ππ scattering lengths.