Experimental Activities in Few-Body Physics

Understanding the few-nucleon system remains one of the challenges in modern nuclear and hadron physics. Observables in few-nucleon scattering processes are sensitive probes to study the two and many-body interactions between nucleons in nuclei. In the past decades, several facilities provided a large data base to study in detail the three-nucleon interactions below the pion-production threshold by exploiting polarized proton and deuteron beams and large-acceptance detectors. Only since recently, the four-nucleon scattering process at intermediate energies has been explored. In addition, there is a focus to collect data in the hyperon-nucleon sector, thereby providing access to understand the more general baryon-baryon interaction. In this contribution, some recent results in the few-nucleon sector are discussed together with some of the preliminary results from a pioneering and exclusive study of the four-nucleon scattering process. Furthermore, this paper discusses the experimental activities in the hyperon sector, in particular, the perspectives of the hyperon program of PANDA.     

Neutral-pion photoproduction off protons in the energy range 0.3 GeV<E(gamma)<3 GeV

Single pi(0) photoproduction has been studied with the CB-ELSA experiment at Bonn using tagged photon energies between 0.3 and 3.0 GeV. The experimental setup covers a very large solid angle of approximately 98% of 4pi. Differential cross sections dsigma/dOmega have been measured. Complicated structures in the angular distributions indicate a variety of different resonances being produced in the s channel intermediate state gammap-->N(*)(Delta(*))-->ppi(0). A combined analysis including the data presented in this letter along with other data sets reveals contributions from known resonances and evidence for a new resonance N(2070)D15.     

Photoproduction of πmesons from nuclei

Photoproduction of neutral pions from nuclei (carbon, calcium, niobium, lead) has been studied for incident-photon energies from 200 MeV to 800 MeV with the TAPS detector using the Glasgow photon tagging spectrometer at the Mainz MAMI accelerator. Data were obtained for the inclusive photoproduction of neutral pions and the partial channels of quasifree single- , double- , and photoproduction. They have been analyzed in terms of the in-medium behavior of nucleon resonances and the pion-nucleus interaction. They are compared to earlier measurements from the deuteron and to the predictions of a Boltzmann-Uehling-Uhlenbeck (BUU) transport model for photon-induced pion production from nuclei.PACS: 13.60.Le Meson production - 25.20.Lj Photoproduction reactions     

\pi\pi correlations in \gamma + A reactions

Preliminary differential cross-sections of the reactions and with A = ¹ H, ¹² C, and ^nat Pb are presented. A significant nuclear-mass dependence of the invariant-mass distribution is found in the channel. The dependence is not observed in the channel. The in-medium observation in the channel is consistent with an in-medium modification of the interaction in the I = J = 0 channel, changing width and pole position of a resonant state.Received: 30 September 2002, Published online: 22 October 2003PACS: 13.60.Le Meson production - 21.65. + f Nuclear matterJ.G. Messchendorp: For the TAPS and A2 Collaborations     

Precision measurement of vector and tensor analyzing powers in elastic deuteron-proton scattering

High-precision vector and tensor analyzing powers of elastic deuteron-proton ( d + p) scattering have been measured at intermediate energies to investigate effects of three-nucleon forces. Angular distributions in the range of 70^°-120^° in the center-of mass frame for incident-deuteron energies E _d ^lab = 130 and 180 MeV were obtained using the RIKEN facility. The beam polarization was unambiguously determined by measuring the ^12C (d, α)^10B(2⁺) reaction at 0^°. Results of the measurements are compared with state-of-the-art three-nucleon calculations. The present modeling of nucleon-nucleon forces and its extension to the three-nucleon system is not sufficient to describe the high-precision data consistently and requires, therefore, further investigation.     

A systematic study of 3NF effects in p + d break-up with BINA at 190 MeV

A systematic study of three-nucleon force (3NF) effects in break-up reactions has been carried out at KVI at several energies. In this article, the p + d → p + p + n reaction with a polarized-proton beam of 190?MeV will be discussed. The experiment was performed by exploiting a new detector called BINA. Some results for high-precision vector analyzing powers and differential cross sections are presented and compared with state-of-the-art Faddeev calculations with or without 3NF.