Cross-section values for Compton scattering on the proton were measured at 25 kinematic settings over the range s = 5-11 and -t = 2-7 GeV2 with statistical accuracy of a few percent. The scaling power for the s-dependence of the cross section at fixed center of mass angle was found to be 8.0 +/ 0.2, strongly inconsistent with the prediction of perturbative QCD. The observed cross-section values are in fair agreement with the calculations using the handbag mechanism, in which the external photons couple to a single quark.

Compton scattering from the proton was investigated at s=6.9 (GeV/c)**2 and \t=-4.0 (GeV/c)**2 via polarization transfer from circularly polarized incident photons. The longitudinal and transverse components of the recoil proton polarization were measured. The results are in excellent agreement with a prediction based on a reaction mechanism in which the photon interacts with a single quark carrying the spin of the proton and in disagreement with a prediction of pQCD based on a two-gluon exchange mechanism.

Differential cross sections for quasi-free Compton scattering from the proton and neutron bound in the deuteron have been measured using the Glasgow/Mainz tagging spectrometer at the Mainz MAMI accelerator together with the Mainz 48 cm $\oslash$ $\times$ 64 cm NaI(Tl) photon detector and the G\"ottingen SENECA recoil detector. The data cover photon energies ranging from 200 MeV to 400 MeV at $\theta^{LAB}_\gamma=136.2^\circ$. Liquid deuterium and hydrogen targets allowed direct comparison of free and quasi-free scattering from the proton. The neutron detection efficiency of the SENECA detector was measured via the reaction $p(\gamma,\pi^+ n)$. The "free" proton Compton scattering cross sections extracted from the bound proton data are in reasonable agreement with those for the free proton which gives confidence in the method to extract the differential cross section for free scattering from quasi-free data. Differential cross sections on the free neutron have been extracted and the difference of the electromagnetic polarizabilities of the neutron have been obtained to be $\alpha-\beta= 9.8\pm 3.6(stat){}^{2.1}_1.1(syst)\pm 2.2(model)$ in units $10^{-4}fm^3$. In combination with the polarizability sum $\alpha +\beta=15.2\pm 0.5$ deduced from photoabsorption data, the neutron electric and magnetic polarizabilities, $\alpha_n=12.5\pm 1.8(stat){}^{+1.1}_{-0.6}\pm 1.1(model)$ and $\beta_n=2.7\mp 1.8(stat){}^{+0.6}_{-1.1}(syst)\mp 1.1(model)$ are obtained. The backward spin polarizability of the neutron was determined to be $\gamma^{(n)}_\pi=(58.6\pm 4.0)\times 10^{-4}fm^4$.

Differential cross sections for Compton scattering by the proton have been measured in the energy interval between 200 and 500 MeV at scattering angles of θ cms = 75° and θ cms = 90° using the CATS, the CATS/TRAJAN, and the COPP setups with the Glasgow Tagger at MAMI (Mainz). The data are compared with predictions from dispersion theory using photo-meson amplitudes from the recent VPI solution SM95. The experiment and the theoretical procedure are described in detail. It is found that the experiment and predictions are in agreement as far as the energy dependence of the differential cross sections in the Δ-range is concerned. However, there is evidence that a scaling down of the resonance part of the M 1+ 3 2 photo-meson amplitude by (2.8 ± 0.9)% is required in comparison with the VPI analysis. The deduced value of the M 1+ 3 2 - photoproduction amplitude at the resonance energy of 320 MeV is: |M 1+ 3 2 | = (39.6 ± 0.4) × 10 −3 m π + −1 .

Differential cross sections of proton Compton scattering have been measured at the Bonn 2.5 GeV synchrotron. The experiment covers photon laboratory energies between 1.2 GeV and 1.7 GeV and the square of the four-momentum transfer ranges fromt=−0.17 GeV2 to −0.98GeV2 corresponding to c.m. scattering angles between 35° and 80°. The cross sections exhibit a forward peak followed by a monotone fall-off up to the largest measured |t|-values. Fits of the formdσ/dt=A·exp(Bt) to the data points with |t|≦0.5 GeV2 yield forward cross sectionsA, which are consistent with the 0° cross sections calculated from the measured total photon-proton cross section. The average slope isB=5.6±0.14 GeV2.

Differential cross sections of proton Compton scattering have been measured at the Bonn 2.5 GeV synchrotron. 78 data points are presented as angular distributions at photon lab energies of 700, 750, 800, 850, 900, and 950MeV. The c.m. scattering angle ranges from 40°–130°, corresponding to a variation of the four momentum transfer squared betweent=−0.10 tot=−0.96 GeV2 at 700 and 950 MeV, respectively. Two additional differential cross sections have been measured at 1000MeV, 35.6° and 47.4°. The angular distributions show forward peaks whose extrapolations to 0° are consistent with calculated forward cross sections taken from literature. The small angle data (|t| ≲0.2 GeV2) together with the calculated cross sections at 0° are also consistent with the assumption of a slope parameterB of 5 GeV−2. For the first time a rerise of the angular distributions towards backward angles has been observed. It becomes less steep with increasing energy. The most interesting feature of the angular distributions is a sharp structure which appears betweent=−0.55 GeV2 at 700MeV andt=−0.72 GeV2 at 950 MeV. Such a rapid varation of the differential cross section witht has never been ovserved in elastic hadron-hadron scattering or photoproduction processes. It indicates the existence of a dynamical mechanism which could be a peculiarity of Compton scattering.

The differential cross sections of the proton Compton scattering around the second resonance have been measured at a c.m. angle of 90° for incident photon energies between 450 MeV and 950 MeV in steps of 50 MeV, and at an angle of 60° for energies between 600 MeV and 800 MeV. The results show that the peak of the 2nd resonance agrees with that of the pion photoproduction process. We also calculated the proton Compton scattering based on unitarity and fixed- t dispersion relations. The calculation describes well the data of the cross section and the recoil proton polarization.

Results are presented on the elastic scattering of photons by protons. The incident photon energy ranged from 0.55 GeV to 4.5 GeV, and the four-momentum transfer t ranged from 0.12 to 1.0 (GeV/c)2. The data at large angles, 60°<θ*<115°, are characterized by a pronounced excitation of the D13(1518) resonance, a shoulder in the 1688-MeV mass region, and a precipitous drop thereafter in the cross section as a function of incident energy. The low-t data are characterized by a diffraction slope of 5 (GeV/c)−2. The data are inconsistent with the predictions of the vector-dominance model if the latter is restricted to ρ0, ω, and φ vector mesons.

The polarization of recoil protons from proton Compton scattering has been measured at an angle of 90° c.m.s. in the region of the second nucleon resonance. The scattered photons were detected by a telescope which consisted of a lead plate converter, scintillation-counter hodoscopes and a Ćerenkov counter, The angles and momenta of recoil protons were analyzed by a magnet with four spark chambers. The polarization of protons was obtained from the asymmetry in the elastic scattering of protons on carbon in a spark chamber.

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