Effective Control of the Electron-donating Ability of Phosphines by using Phosphazenyl and Phosphoniumylidyl Substituents

Phosphoniumylidyl and phosphazenyl groups are effective substituents to increase the electron-donating ability of tertiary phosphines. However, the influence of structural variations among those substituents on the electronic properties of the phosphines is little explored. Herein, we show that protonation of the ylidic carbon atom of phosphoniumylidyl phosphines increases the Tolman electronic parameter (TEP) by ΔTEP = 16.0–18.8 cm^–1. Furthermore, phosphazenyl phosphines were synthesized with isopropyl groups (NP{iPr}₃) and tetramethylguanidino groups (NP{tmg}₃) at the phosphonium center. Determination of their TEP values reveals a remarkable low substituent parameter of χ = –18.5 cm^–1 for the NP(tmg)₃ group. In addition, we prepared the corresponding gold(I) complexes and determined their solid-state structures using single-crystal X-ray diffraction studies to analyze the steric profile of the new phosphine ligands.     

Hydrogen spectroscopy with a Lamb-shift polarimeter

A Lamb-shift polarimeter, which has been built for a fast determination of the polarization of protons and deuterons of an atomic-beam source and which is frequently used in the ANKE experiment at COSY-Jülich, is shown to be an excellent device for atomic-spectroscopy measurements of metastable hydrogen isotopes. It is demonstrated that magnetic and electric dipole transitions in hydrogen can be measured as a function of the external magnetic field, giving access to the full Breit-Rabi diagram for the 2²S_1/2 and the 2²P_1/2 states. This will allow the study of hyperfine structure, g factors and the classical Lamb shift. Although the data are not yet competitive with state-of-the-art measurements, the potential of the method is enormous, including a possible application to anti-hydrogen spectroscopy.     

Measurement of the analyzing power in p-->d-->(p p)n with a fast forward 1S0 proton pair

A measurement of the analyzing power A(y) of the p-->d--> (p p) + n reaction was carried out at the ANKE spectrometer at COSY at beam energies of 0.5 and 0.8 GeV by detection of a fast forward proton pair of small excitation energy E(pp) < 3 MeV. The S-wave dominance in the fast diproton is experimentally demonstrated in this reaction. While at T(p) = 0.8 GeV the measured analyzing power almost vanishes, it rises to nearly unity at T(p) = 0.5 GeV for neutrons emitted at theta(c.m.)(n) = 167 degrees. The results are compared with a model taking into account one-nucleon exchange, single scattering, and Delta(1232) excitation in the intermediate state. The model describes fairly well the unpolarized cross section obtained earlier and the analyzing power at 0.8 GeV; it fails to reproduce A(y) at 0.5 GeV.     

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.     

A method to polarize stored antiprotons to a high degree

Polarized antiprotons can be produced in a storage ring by spin-dependent interaction in a purely electron-polarized hydrogen gas target. The polarizing process is based on spin transfer from the polarized electrons of the target atoms to the orbiting antiprotons. After spin filtering for about two beam lifetimes at energies T approximately equal 40-170 MeV using a dedicated large acceptance ring, the antiproton beam polarization would reach P=0.2-0.4. Polarized antiprotons would open new and unique research opportunities for spin-physics experiments in p(-) p interactions.