Search Results (6 total)

We present the first measurement of the Σ beam asymmetry in η photoproduction on the neutron in the photon energy range from threshold to 1.5 GeV. Data have been collected by using the tagged and linearly polarized photon beam and the large solid angle apparatus of the GRAAL facility. Neutron data have been selected among η photoproduction events on the deuteron in the quasi-free kinematics approximation. Proton data, extracted in the same way, are within errors identical to those previously obtained on free protons at the GRAAL facility, except for a few points falling in certain energy bins. This difference is, however, well understood in terms of the Fermi motion of the nucleons in the deuteron. We take the consistency of free and quasi-free proton data as an indication that nuclear effects are negligible also for neutron data. The ETAMAID model, in which a strong coupling of the D₁₅(1675) resonance to the η-neutron channel is introduced, can explain the proton data very well, but it cannot describe the beam asymmetry for the neutron.

The analysis of the γp→ηπ⁰p reaction has been performed using data from the GRAAL experiment. The total and differential cross sections and the beam asymmetry have been obtained from threshold up to 1.5 GeV of beam energy. The two resonances S₁₁(1535) and Δ(1700) are expected to be excited in the intermediate states of this reaction. The results are used to test predictions based on the assumption that both resonances are dynamically generated from the meson-baryon interaction provided by chiral Lagrangians. The term involving the Δ(1700) excitation, followed by the decay into ηΔ(1232), is found to be dominant.

We report a virtual Compton scattering study of the proton at low c.m. energies. We have determined the structure functions P_LL-P_TT/ϵ and P_LT, and the electric and magnetic generalized polarizabilities (GPs) α_E(Q²) and β_M(Q²) at momentum transfer Q²=0.92 and 1.76  GeV². The electric GP shows a strong falloff with Q², and its global behavior does not follow a simple dipole form. The magnetic GP shows a rise and then a falloff; this can be interpreted as the dominance of a long-distance diamagnetic pion cloud at low Q², compensated at higher Q² by a paramagnetic contribution from πN intermediate states.

Exclusive electroproduction of π⁰ mesons on protons in the backward hemisphere has been studied at Q²=1.0  GeV² by detecting protons in the forward direction in coincidence with scattered electrons from the 4  GeV electron beam in Jefferson Lab’s Hall A. The data span the range of the total (γ*p) center-of-mass energy W from the pion production threshold to W=2.0  GeV. The differential cross sections σ_T+ϵσ_L, σ_TL, and σ_TT were separated from the azimuthal distribution and are presented together with the MAID and SAID parametrizations.

The double π⁰ photoproduction off the proton has been measured in the beam energy range of 0.65–1.5 GeV. The total and differential cross sections and the Σ beam asymmetry were extracted. The total cross section measured for the first time in the third resonance region of the nucleon shows a prominent peak. The interpretation of these results by two independent theoretical models infers mostly the selective excitation of P₁₁- and D₁₃-nucleon resonances.

We present new Σ beam asymmetry data for η meson photoproduction on the proton, using a novel tagged, laser backscattered, linearly polarized photon beam up to 1.1 GeV. The data show large, positive asymmetries, at all incident photon energies. In addition to the S₁₁(1535) and D₁₃(1520) resonances necessary to reproduce the cross sections, P₁₃(1720) and D₁₅(1675) “four stars” resonances contribute to the Σ observable, but cannot reproduce the strong forward asymmetries measured at energies higher than 900 MeV.