Photoproduction of mesons off nuclei

Recent results for the photoproduction of mesons off nuclei are reviewed. These experiments have been performed for two major lines of research related to the properties of the strong interaction. The investigation of nucleon resonances requires light nuclei as targets for the extraction of the isospin composition of the electromagnetic excitations. This is done with quasi-free meson photoproduction off the bound neutron and supplemented with the measurement of coherent photoproduction reactions, serving as spin and/or isospin filters. Furthermore, photoproduction from light and heavy nuclei is a very efficient tool for the study of the interactions of mesons with nuclear matter and the in-medium properties of hadrons. Experiments are currently rapidly developing due to the combination of high quality tagged (and polarized) photon beams with state-of-the-art 4π detectors and polarized targets.     

JINR participation in COMPASS project

A new fixed target experiment to study hadron structure and hadron spectroscopy has been approved at CERN as the CERN experiment NA58—COMPASS. An appropriate two-stage large acceptance spectrometer, with particle identification and calorimetry in both stages, using either polarized muon (100–200 GeV) or hadron (up to 300 GeV) beams and polarized as well as unpolarized targets is being constructed at CERN. The beams for the COMPASS were provided in the years 1999–2000 and physics measurements will start in the year 2001.     

Sum rules for light-by-light scattering

We derive a set of sum rules for the light-by-light scattering and fusion: γγ→all, and verify them in lowest order QED calculations. A prominent implication of these sum rules is the superconvergence of the helicity-difference total cross section for photon fusion, which in the hadron sector reveals an intricate cancellation between the pseudoscalar and tensor mesons. An experimental verification of superconvergence of the polarized photon fusion into hadrons is called for, but will only be possible at e+ e- and γγ colliders with both beams polarized. We also show how the sum rules can be used to measure various contributions to the low-energy light-by-light scattering.     

Neutral pion production in the threshold region Conclusive Symposium of the Collaborative Research Centre 443

We give an overview of the physics motivation and evolution of the neutral pion photoproduction measurements in the threshold region conducted in the A2 collaboration at MAMI. The latest two experiments have been performed with the almost 4π Crystal Ball detector. The first was with a linearly polarized photon beam and unpolarized liquid-hydrogen target. The data analysis is now complete and the linearly polarized beam asymmetry along with differential cross sections provide the most stringent test to date of the predictions of Chiral Perturbation Theory and its energy region of convergence. More recently a measurement was performed using both circularly polarized photons and a transversely polarized butanol frozen-spin target, with the goal of extracting both the target and beam-target asymmetries. From these we intend to extract πN scattering sensitive information for the first time in photo-pion reactions. This will be used to test isospin conservation and further test dynamics of chiral symmetry breaking in QCD as calculated at low energies by Chiral Perturbation Theory.     

Electroproduction of strangeness

Formalism for the electroproduction of strange particles based on the one photon exchange approximation and the Feynman diagrams representation of hadron current is reviewed. Different photoproduction models are compared with available photo and electroproduction data. New experiments are proposed that may resolve existing uncertainties and inconsistencies. The formation of hypernuclei via kaon electroproduction is investigated theoretically and compared with other reactions involving purely hadronic processes.     

Measurements of spin observables in pseudo-scalar meson photo-production using polarized neutrons in solid HD

A measurement of psuedo-scalar meson photo production from longitudinally polarized solid HD has been carried out with the CLAS at Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (Jlab) with circularly and linearly polarized photon beams. Its aim is to measure a complete set of spin observables for the neutron simultaneously from the same experiment. As a polarized neutron, deutron in HD was used. Preliminary asymmetries are shown for the π^? channel.     

Polarization in Pseudoscalar Meson Photoproduction

Two problems of current interest in the use of polarization observables for pseudoscalar meson photoproduction to probe the basic dynamics are discussed. The first one concerns the extraction of the ratio of electric quadrupole to magnetic dipole transition strengths in the photo-excitation of the . The predictions of various models are compared with the recent LEGS and MAMI data obtained with polarized photon beams. The second one is a proposal by Saghai and Tabakin to use the nodal structure of spin observables to unveil underlying dynamics in the production process. We demonstrate with the example of at photon energy that the assumption of multipole truncation, which enters into their nodal analysis, is questionable. Received October 11, 1997; revised February 16, 1998; accepted for publication March 6, 1998     

Photoproduction of heavy quark flavours

Within QCD the photoproduction of new heavy flavours proceeds via photon-gluon amalgamation. The production cross sections of new particles (charm, top, bottom, …) are calculated. Photon and lepton beams are better suited than hadron beams for producing the new particles.     

Spin-dependent processes involving a real photon

We calculate the helicity difference quark and gluon distributions in a polarized real photon using the Altarelli-Parisi equations. The corresponding helicity difference fragmentation functions to produce a real photon are dealt with in the same way. Both sets of results are presented in the form of simple parametrizations and the former used to investigate spin-spin asymmetries in the photoproduction of two high transverse momentum jets. These asymmetries are classed as “four jet” or “three jet” depending on whether any photon fragments are present in the final state along the beam axis. We find that the four-jet asymmetry should provide an experimental test for the presence of the anomalous polarized photon structure function while the three-jet asymmetry should provide new information about the spin structure of a polarized proton and in particular its gluon component.     

Longitudinally polarized photoproduction of inclusive hadrons at fixed-target experiments

We present a detailed phenomenological study of spin-dependent single-inclusive high- p_T hadron photoproduction with particular emphasis on the kinematics relevant for the Compass and Hermes fixed-target experiments. We carefully examine the theoretical uncertainties associated with the only moderate transverse momenta accessible in such measurements and analyze the sensitivity of the relevant spin asymmetries to the gluon polarization in the nucleon as well as to the completely unknown parton content of circularly polarized photons. Received: 30 May 2005, Published online: 6 October 2005 PACS: 13.88. + e, 12.38.Bx, 13.85.Ni     

Latest results from GRAAL collaboration

The GRAAL experimental set-up consists of a polarized and tagged photon beam that covers an energy range from a minimum of 600 MeV up to a maximum of 1500 MeV, of a liquid Hydrogen or Deuterium target and of the 4π Lagrange detector optimized for photon detection. It allows the study of pseudo-scalar and vector meson photoproduction on the nucleon in the energy range corresponding to the second and the third resonance regions. In the following, the Σ beam asymmetries in η and π~0 photoproduction on quasi-free nucleon are shown. Also single and double polarization observables in K~+A photoproduction on free proton are shown; they are important to confirm the role of new or poorly known resonances in the 1900 MeV mass region.     

Measurement of the asymmetry for π photoproduction from polarized protons between 300 and 900 MeV

The asymmetry of the cross section for π⁺ photoproduction from a polarized butanol target has been measured at a c.m. angle 90° and photon energies between 300 and 900 MeV by a single-arm spectrometer detecting positive pions. Our results indicate that the asymmetry has clear positive peaks at photon energies 400 and 700 MeV with a deep valley at about 600 MeV. The general feature of the results is well reproduced by the phenomenological analyses made by Walker and ourselves; however, the best fit to the polarized target asymmetry data seems to give a somewhat different set of parameters from that given by Walker.     

Photoproduction of ω-Mesons at ELSA and the role of azimuthal asymmetries

Measurements of ω photoproduction of the Crystal-Barrel/TAPS experiment at the ELSA accel-erator of Bonn University are presented which used linearly polarized tagged photon beam from threshold to E_γ = 1700 MeV. The azimuthal asymmetries Σ and Σ_π indicate s-channel resonance contributions on top of the established t-channel exchange processes. These findings are further enhanced by a very first measurement of the G-asymmetry which, in addition to the polarized photon beam, also requires a longitudinally polar-ized proton target. An intuitive interpretation of the specific sensitivity of the azimuthal asymmetries to the reaction mechanisms involved is given.     

大数值孔径光子筛偏振特性研究

根据角谱理论建立不同偏振照明条件下的光子筛矢量衍射模型。在此基础上,对入射光分别为线偏振光、径向偏振光、切向偏振光三种特殊偏振状态下的光子筛聚焦光强分布进行了模拟分析。研究结果表明,对于大数值孔径光子筛,入射光的偏振特性将对光子筛聚焦光强分布产生巨大影响。线偏振光将使聚焦光斑沿偏振方向拉伸,切向偏振光产生的聚焦光斑具有"中空"结构,而径向偏振光所产生的聚焦光斑呈较为规则的圆形,且其焦深优于线偏照明情况。在激光直写及高分辨成像等光子筛典型应用中采用径向偏振照明将进一步提高系统分辨力。     

In-medium properties of hadrons — Recent experimental results and perspectives

Recent experimental results on the modification of hadron properties in a nuclear medium are discussed. Experiments using hadron, heavy-ion and photon beams are described. Particular emphasis is given to the photonuclear production of light vector mesons and scalar mesons off nuclei. Recent results on the search for meson-nucleus bound states are presented. Perspectives for extending these studies to the charm sector are outlined     

Highlights from the COMPASS experiment

The Compass experiment at CERN is studying the nucleon spin structure with a 160 GeV polarized muon beam and polarized targets as well as hadron structure with 190 GeV pion, kaon and proton beams. The paper gives an overview of the results for the helicity and transverse spin structure of the nucleon. A first result from the spectroscopy experiments, the observation of a resonance with exotic JPC = 1- + quantum numbers at 1660 MeV is also presented. The paper ends with an outlook to future measurements.     

A NLO calculation of the hadron-jet cross section in photoproduction reactions

We study the photoproduction of large charged hadrons in e p collisions, both for the inclusive case and for the case where a jet in the final state is also measured. Our results are obtained by a NLO generator of partonic events. We discuss the sensitivity of the cross section to the renormalisation and factorisation scales, and to various fragmentation function parametrisations. The possibility to constrain the parton densities in the proton and in the photon is assessed. Comparisons are made with H1 data for inclusive charged hadron production. Received: 25 June 2002 / Published online: 18 October 2002     

Polarized coincidence electroproduction scaling laws for the final state

We study the inclusive electroproduction of single hadrons off a polarized target. Bjorken scaling laws and the hadron azimuthal distribution are derived from the quark parton model.The polarization asymmetries scale when the target spin is along the direction of the virtual photon, and (apart from one significant exception) vanish for transverse spin. These results have a simple explanation; emphasis is given both to the general mathematical formalism and to intuitive physical reasoning.Through this framework we consider other cases: quarks with anomalous magnetic moment; renormalization group effects and asymptotic freedom; production of vector mesons (whose spin state is analysed by their decay); relation to large transverse momentum hadron production; and a covariant parton model calculation. We also look into spin-0 partons and Regge singularities.All of these cases (apart from the last two) modify the pattern of conclusions. Vector meson production shows polarization enhancements in the density matrix element ?₀₊; the renormalization group approach does not lead to any significant suppressions. They are also less severe in parton models for large p_T hadrons, and are not supported by the covariantly formulated calculation. The origins of these differences are isolated and used to exemplify the sensitivity that polarized hadron electroproduction has to delicate detail that is otherwise concealed.     

On the partial-wave analysis of mesonic resonances decaying to multiparticle final states produced by polarized photons

Meson spectroscopy is going through a revival with the advent of high statistics experiments and new advances in the theoretical predictions. The Constituent Quark Model (CQM) is finally being expanded considering more basic principles of field theory and using discrete calculations of Quantum Chromodynamics (lattice QCD). These new calculations are approaching predictive power for the spectrum of hadronic resonances and decay modes. It will be the task of the new experiments to extract the meson spectrum from the data and compare with those predictions. The goal of this report is to describe one particular technique for extracting resonance information from multiparticle final states. The technique described here, partial wave analysis based on the helicity formalism, has been used at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) using pion beams, and Jefferson Laboratory (JLab) using photon beams. In particular this report broadens this technique to include production experiments using linearly polarized real photons or quasi-real photons. This article is of a didactical nature. We describe the process of analysis, detailing assumptions and formalisms, and is directed towards people interested in starting partial wave analysis.     

Regge approach to charged pion photoproduction at invariant energies above 2 GeV

A Regge model with absorptive corrections is employed in a global analysis of the world data on positive and negative pion photoproduction for photon energies from 3 to 8GeV. In this region resonance contributions are expected to be negligible so that the available experimental information on differential cross-sections and single polarization observables at - t ⩽ 2 GeV^2 allows us to determine the non-resonant part of the reaction amplitude reliably. The model amplitude is then used to predict observables for photon energies below 3GeV. Differences between our predictions and data in this energy region are systematically examined as possible signals for the presence of excited baryons. We find that the data available for the polarized photon asymmetry show promising resonance signatures at invariant energies around 2GeV. With regard to differential cross-sections the analysis of negative pion photoproduction data, obtained recently at JLab, indicates likewise the presence of resonance structures around 2GeV.