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Measurements of the cross section for photoproduction of [...] mesons from hydrogen have been extended to angles as small as 5[...] in the c. m. system, using a magnetic spectrometer. At a photon energy of 1025 Mev, the cross section decreases as the angle changes from 5[degrees] to 13[degrees], reaching a minimum before increasing again to the maximum near 40[degrees] which has been previously observed (5). Less extensive measurements at energies 700, 800, 900, and 960 Mev all show a similar rapid decrease with angle in the angular range less than 15[degrees] c.m., although below 960 Mev no actual minimum is observed. These effects at small angles arise presumably from the "retardation term", or "meson current" term and its interference with other contributions to the photoproduction amplitude. It is interesting that a minimum near 15[degrees] is characteristic of the pure Born approximation (retardation term plus "S-wave"). Values of the 0[degree] cross section that are much more accurate than previous estimates have been obtained. An attempt has been made to extract a value of the pion-nucleon coupling constant by an extrapolation into the region cos [...]. Using the best set of data, the value obtained was [...].

Differential cross sections for the reaction $\gamma p \to n \pi^+$ have been measured with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) and a tagged photon beam with energies from 0.725 to 2.875 GeV. Where available, the results obtained here compare well with previously published results for the reaction. Agreement with the SAID and MAID analyses is found below 1 GeV. The present set of cross sections has been incorporated into the SAID database, and exploratory fits have been made up to 2.7 GeV. Resonance couplings have been extracted and compared to previous determinations. With the addition of these cross sections to the world data set, significant changes have occurred in the high-energy behavior of the SAID cross-section predictions and amplitudes.

The differential cross section of the reactionγ+p→π+ was measured at pion CM-angles of 20° and 30° for photon energies between 500 MeV and 1,400 MeV. The pions were detected in a magnetic spectrometer. By measuring each pion trajectory and by offline calculation of the initial pion parameters an energy resolution of about 2.5% FWHM was achieved. The results complete a set of data which were measured in recent years at the Bonn 2.5 GeV synchrotron. In comparison to photoproduction analyses two effects were revealed: The η cusp appears in the energy dependence of the cross section as a sharp drop atKγ=710 MeV. In the region of the third resonance the data show a greater enhancement than predicted by most of the analyses.

The differential cross sections at 180° for the reactions γ+p→π++n and γ+n→π−+p were measured using a magnetic spectrometer to detect π± mesons. In order to reduce the spread of energy resolution due to the nucleon motion inside the deuteron, a photon difference method was employed with a 50-MeV step for the reaction γ+n→π−+p. The data show structures at the second- and the third-resonance regions for both reactions. A simple phenomenological analysis was made for fitting the data, and the results are compared with those of previous analyses.

The reaction γ+p→π++n has been measured for incident γ-ray energies from 0.7 to 8 GeV and recoil lab angles from 170° to 180° using the Cornell 10-GeV synchrotron. The data presented here cover the transition region between the resonance region and the high-energy region studied at SLAC. The results are compared with various phenomenological Regge-pole analyses and with similar data on π0 photoproduction taken at DESY.

The π+ photoproduction cross section in hydrogen has been measured at 180° for photon energies from 0.22 to 3.1 GeV by detecting the pion in the backward direction. The statistical accuracy of the measurements varies typically from 3 to 10% depending on the energy. The data are compared with other recent experimental results and predictions of phenomenological theories.

The ratio of π− to π+ off deuterium was measured as a function of incident photon energy from 600 to 1700 MeV in the forward direction. The ratio shows a broad dip around a center-of-mass energy of 1700 MeV, resulting presumably from the collective effect of several isospin-½ resonances in this energy region. Such a change in the ratio is reflected in the rapid variation of the isoscalar photoproduction amplitude since we found the isovector photoproduction amplitude to be a relatively smooth function decreasing slowly with increasing incident photon energy.

The differential cross section for the reaction γ+p→π++n was measured using the Caltech 1.5-GeV electron synchrotron. The positive pions were detected and momentum analyzed in a multichannel magnetic spectrometer and the data were recorded in the memory of a pulse-height analyzer. The energy resolution was improved over previous experiments and an attempt was made to minimize systematic errors. The data are presented in the form of energy distributions at 12 lab angles from 34° to 155°, and the range of lab proton energies extended from 500 to 1350 MeV. Data were not taken at all energies for each angle, since the maximum useful momentum of the spectrometer, 600 MeVc, restricted the maximum energy for lab angles less than or equal to 74°.

The ratio of the yields of negative and positive pions photoproduced in deuterium has been measured at six photon energies between 500 and 1000 Mev and at seven angles between 20° and 160° in the center-of-momentum system of the photon and target nucleon. Pions were selected with a magnetic spectrometer and identified using momentum and specific ionization in a scintillation counter telescope. The spectator model of the deuteron was used to identify the photon energy. Statistical errors assigned to the π−π+ ratio range between five and fifteen percent. The results of the present experiment join smoothly with the low-energy π−π+ ratios obtained by Sands et al. At high energies the π−π+ ratio varies from 0.5 at forward angles and energies near 900 Mev to 2.5 at 160° c.m. and energies 600 to 800 Mev. The cross sections for π− photo-production from neutrons have been derived from the π−π+ ratio and the CalTech π+ photoproduction data. The angular distributions for π− production are considerably different from those for π+; there is, for example, a systematic increase at the most backward angles. The energy dependence of the total cross section for π− is similar to that for π+, although the second resonance peak occurs at a slightly lower energy, and at 900 and 1000 Mev the π− cross section is smaller by a factor 1.6. A comparison is made of the cross sections for π+ photoproduction from hydrogen and deuterium, although the accuracy of this comparison is not high.