We report results from a search for neutrino-induced neutral current (NC) resonant $\Delta$(1232) baryon production followed by $\Delta$ radiative decay, with a $\langle0.8\rangle$~GeV neutrino beam. Data corresponding to MicroBooNE's first three years of operations (6.80$\times$10$^{20}$ protons on target) are used to select single-photon events with one or zero protons and without charged leptons in the final state ($1\gamma1p$ and $1\gamma0p$, respectively). The background is constrained via an in-situ high-purity measurement of NC $\pi^0$ events, made possible via dedicated $2\gamma1p$ and $2\gamma0p$ selections. A total of 16 and 153 events are observed for the $1\gamma1p$ and $1\gamma0p$ selections, respectively, compared to a constrained background prediction of $20.5 \pm 3.65 \text{(sys.)} $ and $145.1 \pm 13.8 \text{(sys.)} $ events. The data lead to a bound on an anomalous enhancement of the normalization of NC $\Delta$ radiative decay of less than $2.3$ times the predicted nominal rate for this process at the 90% confidence level (CL). The measurement disfavors a candidate photon interpretation of the MiniBooNE low-energy excess as a factor of $3.18$ times the nominal NC $\Delta$ radiative decay rate at the 94.8% CL, in favor of the nominal prediction, and represents a greater than $50$-fold improvement over the world's best limit on single-photon production in NC interactions in the sub-GeV neutrino energy range
We report measurements of the photon beam asymmetry $\Sigma$ for the reaction $\vec{\gamma} p\to K^+\Sigma^0$(1193) using the GlueX spectrometer in Hall D at Jefferson Lab. Data were collected using a linearly polarized photon beam in the energy range of 8.2-8.8 GeV incident on a liquid hydrogen target. The beam asymmetry $\Sigma$ was measured as a function of the Mandelstam variable $t$, and a single value of $\Sigma$ was extracted for events produced in the $u$-channel. These are the first exclusive measurements of the photon beam asymmetry $\Sigma$ for the reaction in this energy range. For the $t$-channel, the measured beam asymmetry is close to unity over the $t$-range studied, $-t=(0.1-1.4)~$(GeV/$c$)$^{2}$, with an average value of $\Sigma = 1.00\pm 0.05$. This agrees with theoretical models that describe the reaction via the natural-parity exchange of the $K^{*}$(892) Regge trajectory. A value of $\Sigma = 0.41 \pm 0.09$ is obtained for the $u$-channel integrated up to $-u=2.0$~(GeV/$c$)$^{2}$.
We report a measurement of the $\pi^-$ photoproduction beam asymmetry for the reaction $\vec{\gamma} p \rightarrow \pi^- \Delta^{++}$ using data from the GlueX experiment in the photon beam energy range 8.2--8.8 GeV. The asymmetry $\Sigma$ is measured as a function of four-momentum transfer $t$ to the $\Delta^{++}$ and compared to phenomenological models. We find that $\Sigma$ varies as a function of $t$: negative at smaller values and positive at higher values of $|t|$. The reaction can be described theoretically by $t$-channel particle exchange requiring pseudoscalar, vector, and tensor intermediaries. In particular, this reaction requires charge exchange, allowing us to probe pion exchange and the significance of higher-order corrections to one-pion exchange at low momentum transfer. Constraining production mechanisms of conventional mesons may aid in the search for and study of unconventional mesons. This is the first measurement of the process at this energy.
We report on the measurement of the beam asymmetry $\Sigma$ for the reactions $\vec{\gamma}p\rightarrow p\eta$ and $\vec{\gamma}p \rightarrow p\eta^{\prime}$ from the GlueX experiment, using an 8.2--8.8 GeV linearly polarized tagged photon beam incident on a liquid hydrogen target in Hall D at Jefferson Lab. These measurements are made as a function of momentum transfer $-t$, with significantly higher statistical precision than our earlier $\eta$ measurements, and are the first measurements of $\eta^{\prime}$ in this energy range. We compare the results to theoretical predictions based on $t$--channel quasi-particle exchange. We also compare the ratio of $\Sigma_{\eta}$ to $\Sigma_{\eta^{\prime}}$ to these models, as this ratio is predicted to be sensitive to the amount of $s\bar{s}$ exchange in the production. We find that photoproduction of both $\eta$ and $\eta^{\prime}$ is dominated by natural parity exchange with little dependence on $-t$.
We report on the measurement of the $\gamma p \rightarrow J/\psi p$ cross section from $E_\gamma = 11.8$ GeV down to the threshold at $8.2$ GeV using a tagged photon beam with the GlueX experiment. We find the total cross section falls toward the threshold less steeply than expected from two-gluon exchange models. The differential cross section $d\sigma /dt$ has an exponential slope of $1.67 \pm 0.39$ GeV$^{-2}$ at $10.7$ GeV average energy. The LHCb pentaquark candidates $P_c^+$ can be produced in the $s$-channel of this reaction. We see no evidence for them and set model-dependent upper limits on their branching fractions $\mathcal{B}(P_c^+ \rightarrow J/\psi p)$ and cross sections $\sigma(\gamma p \to P_c^+)\times\mathcal{B}(P_c^+ \to J/\psi p) $.
The measurement of the production of deuterons, tritons and $^{3}\mathrm{He}$ and their antiparticles in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\mathrm{NN}}} = 5.02$ TeV is presented in this article. The measurements are carried out at midrapidity ($|y| < $ 0.5) as a function of collision centrality using the ALICE detector. The $p_{\rm T}$-integrated yields, the coalescence parameters and the ratios to protons and antiprotons are reported and compared with nucleosynthesis models. The comparison of these results in different collision systems at different centre-of-mass collision energies reveals a suppression of nucleus production in small systems. In the Statistical Hadronisation Model framework, this can be explained by a small correlation volume where the baryon number is conserved, as already shown in previous fluctuation analyses. However, a different size of the correlation volume is required to describe the proton yields in the same data sets. The coalescence model can describe this suppression by the fact that the wave functions of the nuclei are large and the fireball size starts to become comparable and even much smaller than the actual nucleus at low multiplicities.
We report the total and differential cross sections for $J/\psi$ photoproduction with the large acceptance GlueX spectrometer for photon beam energies from the threshold at 8.2~GeV up to 11.44~GeV and over the full kinematic range of momentum transfer squared, $t$. Such coverage facilitates the extrapolation of the differential cross sections to the forward ($t = 0$) point beyond the physical region. The forward cross section is used by many theoretical models and plays an important role in understanding $J/\psi$ photoproduction and its relation to the $J/\psi-$proton interaction. These measurements of $J/\psi$ photoproduction near threshold are also crucial inputs to theoretical models that are used to study important aspects of the gluon structure of the proton, such as the gluon Generalized Parton Distribution (GPD) of the proton, the mass radius of the proton, and the trace anomaly contribution to the proton mass. We observe possible structures in the total cross section energy dependence and find evidence for contributions beyond gluon exchange in the differential cross section close to threshold, both of which are consistent with contributions from open-charm intermediate states.
The GlueX experiment at Jefferson Lab studies photoproduction of mesons using linearly polarized $8.5\,\text{GeV}$ photons impinging on a hydrogen target which is contained within a detector with near-complete coverage for charged and neutral particles. We present measurements of spin-density matrix elements for the photoproduction of the vector meson $\rho$(770). The statistical precision achieved exceeds that of previous experiments for polarized photoproduction in this energy range by orders of magnitude. We confirm a high degree of $s$-channel helicity conservation at small squared four-momentum transfer $t$ and are able to extract the $t$-dependence of natural and unnatural-parity exchange contributions to the production process in detail. We confirm the dominance of natural-parity exchange over the full $t$ range. We also find that helicity amplitudes in which the helicity of the incident photon and the photoproduced $\rho(770)$ differ by two units are negligible for $-t<0.5\,\text{GeV}^{2}/c^{2}$.
Two-particle transverse momentum differential correlators, recently measured in Pb--Pb collisions at energies available at the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC), provide an additional tool to gain insights into particle production mechanisms and infer transport properties, such as the ratio of shear viscosity to entropy density, of the medium created in Pb-Pb collisions. The longitudinal long-range correlations and the large azimuthal anisotropy measured at low transverse momenta in small collision systems, namely pp and p-Pb, at LHC energies resemble manifestations of collective behaviour. This suggests that locally equilibrated matter may be produced in these small collision systems, similar to what is observed in Pb-Pb collisions. In this work, the same two-particle transverse momentum differential correlators are exploited in pp and p-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV and $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 5.02$ TeV, respectively, to seek evidence for viscous effects. Specifically, the strength and shape of the correlators are studied as a function of the produced particle multiplicity to identify evidence for longitudinal broadening that might reveal the presence of viscous effects in these smaller systems. The measured correlators and their evolution from pp and p--Pb to Pb--Pb collisions are additionally compared to predictions from Monte Carlo event generators, and the potential presence of viscous effects is discussed.
Atomic nuclei are self-organized, many-body quantum systems bound by strong nuclear forces within femtometer-scale space. These complex systems manifest a variety of shapes, traditionally explored using non-invasive spectroscopic techniques at low energies. However, at these energies, their instantaneous shapes are obscured by long-timescale quantum fluctuations, making direct observation challenging. Here we introduce the ``collective flow assisted nuclear shape imaging'' method, which images the nuclear global shape by colliding them at ultrarelativistic speeds and analyzing the collective response of outgoing debris. This technique captures a collision-specific snapshot of the spatial matter distribution within the nuclei, which, through the hydrodynamic expansion, imprints patterns on the particle momentum distribution observed in detectors. We benchmark this method in collisions of ground state Uranium-238 nuclei, known for their elongated, axial-symmetric shape. Our findings show a large deformation with a slight deviation from axial symmetry in the nuclear ground state, aligning broadly with previous low-energy experiments. This approach offers a new method for imaging nuclear shapes, enhances our understanding of the initial conditions in high-energy collisions and addresses the important issue of nuclear structure evolution across energy scales.