A new μs isomer in 136Sb produced in the projectile fission of 238U

Rapidity correlations in 800 GeV proton interactions with emulsion nuclei are investigated for different targets and multiplicity regions. To study the energy dependence, the results have been compared with proton interactions at 200 GeV and 400 GeV. A common feature of all the interactions is the existence of strong, short-range correlations. However, no dependence of cluster parameters on primary energy or target mass is found. A marginal increase of correlation strength with multiplicity is observed. Received: 30 March 2001 / Accepted: 18 September 2001     

Charged-particle multiplicity distributions in different rapidity windows in 800 GeV proton-nucleus interactions

Multiplicity distributions of charged particles produced in interactions of 800 GeV protons with emulsion nuclei in various rapidity windows are presented. The data is also analyzed separately for the forward and the backward hemispheres, for rapidity windows of different widths. It is found that the Negative Binomial Distribution (NBD) describes well the multiplicity distribution of secondary particles in various rapidity windows and also in both the hemispheres. We have compared the NBD parameters, in both the hemispheres, at 200 GeV and 360 GeV, with those at 800 GeV. The behaviour of NBD parameters in rapidity windows of different widths and for different targets has also been studied. Received: 30 August 2001 / Accepted: 28 January 2002     

Note on the impact parameter analysis of high-energy proton-proton collisions

Following a prior analysis of measured pp elastic differential cross-sections, the impact parameter representation in terms of profile functions is calculated from two different parametrizations of single diffractive dissociation data. The derivative of this quantity, with respect to the collision energy squared s, measures the growth rate of the reaction's blackness. Its distribution in impact parameter space allows detailed insight into the growth pattern of the total diffractive cross-section and the approaching unitarity limit. Comparing the results with the elastic case, the different mechanisms of unitarization of two parametrizations are discussed. Received: 19 January 2001 / Accepted: 11 July 2001     

On the coherent inelastic processes in the interaction of hadrons and <Emphasis Type="Italic">γ</Emphasis>-quanta with nuclei at ultrarelativistic energies

The coherent inelastic processes of the type a→b, which may take place in the collisions of hadrons and γ-quanta with nuclei at very high energies (the nucleus remains the same), are theoretically investigated. The influence of matter inside the nucleus is taken into account by using the optical model based on the concept of refraction index. Analytical formulas for the effective cross-section σ _coh(a→b) are obtained, taking into account that at ultrarelativistic energies the main contribution into σ _coh(a→b) is provided by very small transferred momenta in the vicinity of the minimum longitudinal momentum transferred to the nucleus.     

On studying charm in nuclei through antiproton annihilation

We examine the production of open charm in antiproton annihilation on finite nuclei. The enhancement of the subthreshold production cross section, even in a nucleus as light as carbon, should provide a clean signature of the reduction in the masses of these mesons in-medium. We also show that a careful analysis of the D⁺ and D⁻ spectra can yield important information on the cross section for D^±N scattering. Received: 10 June 1999 / Revised version: 13 August 1999     

Extended Gaussian ensemble or q-statistics in hadronic production processes?

The extended Gaussian ensemble introduced recently as a generalization of the canonical ensemble, which allows to treat energy fluctuations present in the system, is used to analyze the inelasticity distributions in high energy multiparticle production processes.     

Probing the interactions of charmed mesons with nuclei in ¯p-induced reactions

We study the perspectives of resonant and nonresonant charmed-meson production in ˉp + A reactions within the Multiple Scattering Monte Carlo (MSMC) approach. We calculate the production of the resonances Ψ(3770),Ψ(4040) and Ψ(4160) on various nuclei, their propagation and decay to D,ˉD, D ^*,ˉD^*, D _s,ˉD_s in the medium and vacuum, respectively. The modifications of the open charm vector mesons in the nuclear medium are found to be rather moderate or even small such that dilepton spectroscopy will require an invariant mass resolution of a few MeV. Furthermore, the elastic and inelastic interactions of the open charm mesons in the medium are taken into account, which can be related to (u, d )-, s- or c-quark exchange with nucleons. It is found that by studying the D/ˉD ratio for low momenta in the laboratory ( ? 2 - 2.2 GeV/c) as a function of the target mass A stringent constraints on the c-quark exchange cross-section can be obtained. On the other hand, the ratios D ^- _s/D ⁺ _s as well as D/D ^- _s and D/D ⁺ _s at low momenta as a function of A will permit to fix independently the strength of the s-quark exchange reaction in D ^- _s N scattering. Received: 1 March 2002 / Accepted: 21 March 2002     

Interactions of charmed mesons with nucleons in the ¯<Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis><Emphasis Type="Italic">d</Emphasis> reaction

We study the possibility to measure the elastic ΦN (Φ≡J/ψ,ψ(2S), ψ(3770), χ_2c) scattering cross section in the reaction ˉp+d→Φ+n _sp and the elastic D(ˉD)N scattering cross section in the reaction ˉp+d→D ⁻ D ⁰ p _sp. Our studies indicate that the elastic scattering cross sections can be determined for Φ momenta about 4–6 GeV/c and D/ˉD momenta 2–5 GeV/c by selecting events with p _t≥ 0.4 GeV/c for Φ's and p _t(p _sp) ≥ 0.5 GeV/c for D/ˉD-meson production. Received: 8 November 1999     

Phenomenological πN→ππN amplitude and the modelling of the Olsson–Turner and Chew–Low approaches

The phenomenological amplitude for the reaction πN→ππN fixed by fittings to the experimental data in the energy region 0.300 ≤P _Lab≤ 500 MeV/c is used for modelling the Chew–Low extrapolation and Olsson–Turner threshold approach. It is shown that the uncritical application of the former results in enermous theoretical errors, the extracted values being in fact random numbers. The results of the Olsson–Turner method are characterized by significant systematic errors coming from unknown details of the isobar physics. Received: 10 December 1997     

Study of ω-meson production in pp collisions at ANKE

The production of ω-mesons in the pp → ppω reaction has been investigated with the COSY-ANKE spectrometer for excess energies of 60 and 92MeV by detecting the two final protons and reconstructing their missing mass. The large physical background was subtracted using an event-by-event transformation of the proton momenta between the two energies. Differential distributions and total cross-sections were obtained after careful studies of possible systematic uncertainties in the overall ANKE acceptance. The results are compared with the predictions of theoretical models. Combined with data on the φ-meson, a more refined estimate is made of the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule violation in the φ/ω production ratio.     

Production of φ mesons in near-threshold πN and NN reactions

We analyze the production of φ mesons in πN and NN reactions in the near-threshold region, using throughout the conventional “non-strange” dynamics based on such processes which are allowed by the non-ideal ω-φ mixing. We show that the occurrence of the direct φNN interaction may show up in different unpolarized and polarization observables in πN→Nφ reactions. We find a strong non-trivial difference between observables in the reactions pp→ppφ and pn→pnφ caused by the different role of the spin singlet and triplet states in the entrance channel. A series of predictions for the experimental study of this effect is presented. Received: 27 January 2000     

Phenomenology of neutral D-meson decays and double-flavour oscillations

Decays of neutral D-mesons are considered phenomenologically without invoking any particular models. Special attention is given to cascade decays with intermediate neutral kaons where coherent double-flavour oscillations (CDFO) become possible. We show necessity and unique possibilities of experiments on CDFO. They allow to relate with each other widths and masses of D-meson eigenstates, to separate interference effects due to D ⁰-ˉD ⁰ mixing and/or Cabibbo-favoured vs. doubly-suppressed transitions. Such experiments provide the only known ways to unambiguous model-independent measurements of all CP-violating parameters and of Cabibbo-doubly-suppressed amplitudes, where the New Physics may have more prominent manifestations. Similar experiments would be useful and interesting also for charged D-meson decays to neutral kaons. Received: 13 August 1998     

General formalism in collinear regime for pseudoscalar meson production in NN collisions

The spin structure of the matrix element for the pseudoscalar meson production processes in nucleon-nucleon collisions is established in the collinear kinematical regime in terms of 3 independent scalar amplitudes. This result is valid for any reaction mechanism and for any energy of the colliding and the produced particles. The complete experiment for the full reconstruction of all 3 complex amplitudes must contain two different classes of polarization experiments. The polarization transfer coefficients can be used to determine the moduli of all 3 amplitudes, whereas the spin correlation coefficients for + collisions are sensitive to the relative phases of different amplitudes. Received: 13 August 2001 / Accepted: 20 September 2001     

Polarization observables in the reaction pn↦dφ

The reaction pn↦dφ is studied within a covariant boson exchange model. The behavior of polarization observables being accessible in forthcoming experiments near threshold is predicted. Received: 13 February 2001 / Accepted: 25 March 2002     

Hadron diffractive processes: the structure of soft pomeron and colour screening

On the basis of the experimental data on diffractive processes in πp, pp and pˉp collisions at intermediate, moderately high and high energies, we restore the scattering amplitude related to the t-channel exchange by vacuum quantum numbers by taking account of the diffractive s-channel rescatterings. At intermediate and moderately high energies, the t-channel exchange amplitude turns, with a good accuracy, into an effective pomeron which renders the results of the additive quark model. At superhigh energies the scattering amplitude provides a Froissart-type behaviour, with an asymptotic universality of cross sections such as σ^tot _πp/σ^tot _pp→ 1 at s→∞. The quark structure of hadrons being taken into account at the level of constituent quarks, the cross sections of pion and proton (antiproton) in the impact parameter space of quarks, σ_π(r _1⊥, r _2⊥; s) and σ_p(r _1⊥, r _2⊥, r _3⊥; s), are found as functions of s. These cross sections implicate the phenomenon of colour screening: they tend to zero at |r _i⊥−r _k⊥|→ 0. The effective colour screening radius for pion (proton) is found for different s. The predictions for the diffractive cross sections at superhigh energies are presented. Received: 15 December 1998     

Isoscalar-isovector interferences in πN↦Ne+e- reactions as a probe of baryon resonance dynamics

The isoscalar-isovector (ρ-ω) interferences in the exclusive reactions π^- p↦ne ⁺ e ^- and π⁺ n↦pe ⁺ e ^- near the ω threshold leads to a distinct difference of the dielectron invariant-mass distributions depending on beam energy. The strength of this effect is determined by the coupling of resonances to the nucleon vector-meson channels and other resonance properties. Therefore, a combined analysis of these reactions can be used as a tool for determining the baryon resonance dynamics. Received: 14 August 2001 / Accepted: 3 October 2001     

Threshold enhancement in η photoproduction from 2H and 4He

The photoproduction of η-mesons from ²H and ⁴He has been studied for energies close to the production thresholds. The experiments were carried out with the tagged photon beam of the Mainz MAMI accelerator. The η-mesons were detected via their two photon decays with the electromagnetic calorimeter TAPS. Total cross-sections, angular and momentum distributions of the η-mesons have been determined for both reactions. The total cross-sections in the threshold region show a large enhancement over the predictions of a participant-spectator model, indicating significant final-state interaction effects. The results are compared to recent model calculations taking into account nucleon-nucleon and nucleon-η final-state interaction effects on different levels of sophistication. Received: 23 November 2001 / Accepted: 11 February 2002     

ππ scattering and the meson resonance spectrum

A ππ, ˉKK, and ρρ(ωω) fully coupled channel model is used to predict the lowest isospin S, P, D, F-wave phase shifts and inelasticities for elastic ππ scattering from threshold to 2.0 GeV. As input the S-matrix is required to exhibit poles corresponding to the meson resonance table of the Particle Data Group. As expected, the ππ inelasticity is very strongly related to the opening of the ˉK channel near 1 GeV, and the opening of ρρ(4π) and ωω(6π) channels in the 1.5 GeV region. The predictions of this model are compared to the various elastic ππ→ππ amplitudes, that were obtained from analyses of π⁻ p →π⁻π⁺n data. The role of the various resonances, in particular the glueball candidate f ₀(1500) and the f _J(1710) is investigated. Received: 19 November 1997     

The K * Kπ and ρππ couplings in QCD

The light cone QCD sum rules are derived for the K ^* Kπ coupling g _K ^* Kπ and the ρππ coupling g _ρππ. The contribution from the excited states and the continuum is subtracted cleanly through the double Borel transform with respect to the two external momenta, p ₁ ², p ₂ ²= (p−q)². Our result g _K ^* Kπ= (8.7 ± 0.5) and g _ρππ= (11.5 ± 0.8) is in good agreement with the experimental value. Received: 31 July 1998 / Revised version: 20 November 1998