Theoretical study of deuteron polarization in γ+d → π0+d

The state of polarization of the recoil deuteron in γ+d → π⁰+d on unpolarized and target polarized deuterons is analyzed in detail. A new set of statistical tensors is introduced to describe non-oriented systems, such as the recoil deuteron in γ+d → π⁰+d, and their relationships to the vector and tensor polarization parameters are established. The new statistical tensors reduce, in the case of oriented systems, to Fano's statistical tensors. Numerical results are computed using two different deuteron models for polarized photon asymmetry, polarized target asymmetry and the vector and tensor polarizations of the recoil deuteron, and these are presented at various c.m. pion production angles at different energies in the region of the first π-N resonance. The study of these parameters is suggested as a promising source of information on isoscalar pion photoproduction amplitudes.