Charged pion photoproduction in the quark model

In terms of a quark model an explanation is given of charged pion photoproduction ratios, at small momentum transfer, in the processes γN → π^±N, γN → π^±Δ. The model is also shown to be consistent with π⁰ photoproduction data.     

Nonlocal theory of single pion photoproduction

A nonlocal interaction theory is formulated for photoproduction processes by introducing a form function. An effective nonlocal, Lorentz invariant and gauge invariant Lagrangian density for the four-field interaction that gives rise to a production amplitude is constructed. The general structure of the form function is investigated by using some restrictions of the form function. For low energy ⁰ photoproduction an explicit form of the Fourier component of the form function is obtained. The physical model of the present formalism is to assume, similar to the strong absorption model, that the system in intermediate states is confined in a finite domain of space. For ⁰ production the linear dimension of this domain is obtained to be ₀ = 3·88F. It is important to observe that the extent of electromagnetic distribution in a nucleon is also nearly the size of ₀. This is believed to be the reason that in low energy pion photoproduction the effects of electromagnetic structure of a nucleon are irrelevant. The unpolarized differential and total cross sections are calculated for ⁰ production in helicity representation and the predictions are found to be in good agreement with experiments.     

A non-relativistic quark model for baryons with pion cloud

We incorporate chiral invariance into a non-relativistic scheme for baryon structure in an approximate way, by introducing additional mesonic degrees of freedom. We proceed to calculate static properties for the nucleon and isobar. Using standard few-body techniques we are able to eliminate center-of-mass spurious motion from the wave functions. In our scheme a D-state admixture arises in the nucleon and isobar wave functions. There are parametrizations compatible with sphericity leading to a strong quenching of the effective quark axial coupling constant. Others lead to deformed ground-state baryons with almost no quenching of the weak-coupling constant.     

Neutral pion photoproduction at high energies

A Regge model with absorptive corrections is employed in a global analysis of the world data on the reactions p p and n n for photon energies from 3 to 18GeV. In this region resonance contributions are expected to be negligible so that the available experimental information on differential cross-sections and single and double polarization observables at - t 2 GeV²allows us to determine the reaction amplitude reliably. The model amplitude is then used to predict observables for photon energies below 3GeV. A detailed comparison with recent data from the CLAS and CB-ELSA Collaborations in that energy region is presented. Furthermore, the prospects for determining the radiative decay width via the Primakoff effect from the reaction p p are explored.     

Backward pion photoproduction

We present a systematic analysis of backward pion photoproduction for the reactions p p and p n . Regge phenomenology is applied at invariant collision energies above 3GeV in order to fix the reaction amplitude. A comparision with older data on - and -photoproduction at = 180^° indicates that the high-energy limit as given by the Regge calculation could be reached possibly at energies of around ≃ 3 GeV. In the energy region of 2.5 GeV, covered by the new measurements of p p differential cross-sections at large angles at ELSA, JLab, and LEPS, we see no clear signal for a convergence towards the Regge results. The baryon trajectories obtained in our analysis are in good agreement with those given by the spectrum of excited baryons.     

Nuclear heavy quark photoproduction in a saturation model

We calculate the nuclear inclusive and diffractive cross sections for heavy quark photoproduction within a phenomenological saturation approach. The nuclear cross section is obtained by the extension of the saturation model through the Glauber-Gribov formalism. We predict large nuclear heavy quark cross sections at LHC energies.Received: 6 May 2003, Revised: 1 July 2003, Published online: 5 September 2003     

Double pion photoproduction from3He at low energies

A generalization of the “Gauge-invariant OPE model” to double pion photoproduction on³He is presented. Results for the total and differential cross-sections are shown. The relevance of double pion photoproduction in the nuclear shadowing of photons is remarked.     

Application of K-matrix CMSR'S to single charged pion photoproduction

The background terms, required in addition to Regge poles with some definite properties, in order to describe the high energy behavior of the t-channel single pion photoproduction amplitudes F_t^(?)(v, t), i = 1, …, 4, are investigated in the framework of a reggeized K-matrix model. To this end continuous moment sum rules (CMSR's) are applied, not to the full amplitudes, but just to the two-particle K-matrix amplitudes assumed to show pure Regge pole asymptotic behavior. The K-matrix amplitudes are defined by taking into account in the Heitler equation the elastic (πN) intermediate state alone. Such a definition corresponds to a weak-cut model with only final-state interactions included. It turns out that strong background contributions are still present on the high energy side of the K-matrix CMSR's. The Regge cut contributions generated within our formalism are found to be too weak to account for the background terms in the full amplitudes. This is presumably to a great extent due to the neglect of the (?N) diffraction-dissociation intermediate state in the definition of the K-matrix amplitudes.     

Polarisation parameters in neutral pion photoproduction

The polarisation parameters Σ, P and T have been measured for the process γp→π⁰p in the photon energy range 1300–2100 MeV and c.m. angles between 30° and 110°, in an experiment with a polarised beam and polarised target. The results are compared with a recent theoretical analysis which fits data from threshold to 16 GeV. The new data are in general agreement with the analysis, but with some significant discrepancies in detail.     

Implications of gauge invariance for pion electroproduction at threshold

We discuss the implications of gauge invariance in the problem of the on-shell extrapolation of the electroproduction low-energy theorems. We show that there is an invariant amplitude which can be evaluated at the Breit threshold either using gauge invariance and on-shell dispersion relations or following the Fubini and Furlan [5] extrapolation method starting from the current-algebra low-energy value of the amplitude. Comparing the two expressions, we find a relation between the electromagnetic pion form factor, F_π (k²), and the axial-vector nucleon form factors, g_A (k²) and h_A (k²).     

Neutral pion photoproduction off nucleons revisited

We investigate threshold pion photoproduction in the framework of heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. We give the expansion of the electric dipole amplitude E ₀₊ to three orders in μ the ratio of the pion to nucleon mass, and show that it is slowly converging. We argue that this observable is not a good testing ground for the chiral dynamics of QCD. In contrast, we exhibit new and fastly converging low-energy theorems in the P-waves which should be used to constrain the data analysis. We also discuss the importance of polarization observables to accurately pin down certain multipoles and give predictions for the reaction γ n → π⁰ n.     

Charged pion photoproduction from light nuclei

The photoproduction of 0–150-MeV charged pions from light nuclei is studied from a distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) approach. The final nuclear states are restricted to a finite set of isospin analogs of excited states of the target nucleus. The final state interactions of the pion with the residual nucleus are incorporated via optical potentials. The elementary photoproduction operator used is that of Blomqvist and Laget which is derived in a general reference frame. To gain insight into the predictive power of this DWIA approach, total and differential cross sections for π^± production from ⁶Li, ⁷Li, ¹⁰B, ¹²C, and ¹⁴N are calculated and compared with available data. It is found that, with a few exceptions, reasonable agreement is obtained between theory and experiment as long as the nuclear wave functions are constrained to fit other electromagnetic and weak processes and the optical potentials are constrained to fit pion-nucleus elastic scattering data. We conclude that, at this stage, using the Blomqvist-Laget operator in a DWIA calculation adequately describes the dynamics of charged pion photoproduction from complex nuclei. We illustrate how this reaction can be used to obtain information on the short range nature of the pion wave function and on nuclear wave functions. Shortcomings of and improvements on this calculation are also suggested.     

Double pion photoproduction off 40Ca

The photoproduction of π ⁰ π ⁰ and π ⁰ π ^± pairs off ⁴⁰Ca has been investigated with the TAPS detector using the Glasgow photon tagging spectrometer at the Mainz MAMI accelerator. Data have been taken for incident photon energies in the energy range from 200-820MeV. Total cross-sections have been extracted from threshold up to the maximum photon energy and invariant-mass distributions of the pion pairs have been obtained for incident photon energies between 400-500MeV and 500-550MeV. The double π ⁰ invariant-mass distributions show some relative enhancement with respect to the mixed charge channel at small invariant masses. The effects are smaller than previously observed for lead nuclei and the distributions do not significantly deviate from carbon data. The data are in good agreement with the results of recent calculations in the framework of the BUU model, with careful treatment of final-state interaction effects but without an explicit in-medium modification of scalar, iso-scalar pion pairs. This means that for Ca most of the experimentally observed effect can be explained by final-state interactions. Only at low incident photon energies there is still a small low mass enhancement of the double π ⁰ data over the BUU results.     

Positive pion production at threshold on A 10B target

The angular distribution of low-energy positive pions (E_π ≈ 11 MeV) produced by 154 MeV protons on a ¹⁰B target has been measured between 16.2° and 54.8° c.m. angles. Only pions corresponding to the ground state of ¹¹B were observed. The data have been compared with theoretical angular distributions calculated in the framework of the one-nucleon mechanism using the DWBA formalism.     

Polarisation parameters in positive pion photoproduction

Measurements have been made of the polarisation parameters Σ, T and P for the process γp → π⁺n in the photon energy range 520–2250 MeV at c.m. angles between 30° and 120°. These data were obtained in a double polarisation experiment, using the polarised photon beam from the Daresbury electron synchrotron incident on a polarised proton target. The data are compared with predictions from current theoretical analyses.     

Double pion photoproduction from3He at low energies

A generalization of the Gauge-invariant OPE model to double pion photoproduction on³He is presented. Results for the total and differential cross-sections are shown. The relevance of double pion photoproduction in the nuclear shadowing of photons is remarked.