The backward angular distributions obtained in an experiment at the Zero Gradient Synchrotron of Argonne National Laboratory were used to systematically study the energy dependence of the 180° differential cross section for π+p elastic scattering in the center-of-mass energy region from 2159 to 3487 MeV. At each of 38 incident pion momenta between 2.0 and 6.0 GeV/c, a focusing spectrometer and scintillation counter hodoscopes were used to obtain differential cross sections for typically five pion scattering angles from 141° to 173° in the laboratory. Values for dσdΩ at 180° were then obtained by extrapolation. A resonance model and an interference model were used to perform fits to the energy dependence of dσdΩ (180°). Both models led to good fits to our data and yielded values for the masses, widths, parities, and the product of spin and elasticity for the Δ(2200), Δ(2420), Δ(2850), and Δ(3230) resonances. Our data confirm the existence of the Δ(3230) and require the negative-parity Δ(2200).
The polarization parameter P(t) for the reaction π−p→π0n has been measured at 3.5 and 5.0 GeV/c over the range 0.2<~−t<~1.8 (GeV/c)2. The two γ rays from the π0 decay were detected in a large lead-glass hodoscope. The results agree with the positive polarization values found in earlier Argonne National Laboratory data at −t<0.35 (GeV/c)2. P(t) drops to a small value near t=−0.6 (GeV/c)2 and remains the same out to t=−1.8 (GeV/c)2.
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