Photoproduction of eta-mesons off nuclei for Eg < 2.2 GeV

The CBELSA & TAPS collaborations Mertens, T. ; Jaegle, I. ; Muhlich, P. ; et al.
Eur.Phys.J.A 38 (2008) 195-207, 2008.
Inspire Record 799499 DOI 10.17182/hepdata.50323

Photoproduction of $\eta$ mesons off $^{12}$C, $^{40}$Ca, $^{93}$Nb, and $^{nat}$Pb nuclei has been measured with a tagged photon beam with energies between 0.6 and 2.2 GeV. The experiment was performed at the Bonn ELSA accelerator with the combined setup of the Crystal Barrel and TAPS calorimeters. It aimed at the in-medium properties of the S$_{11}$(1535) nucleon resonance and the study of the absorption properties of nuclear matter for $\eta$ mesons. Careful consideration was given to contributions from $\eta\pi$ final states and secondary production mechanisms of $\eta$-mesons e.g. from inelastic $\pi N$ reactions of intermediate pions. The analysis of the mass number scaling shows that the nuclear absorption cross section $\sigma_{N\eta}$ for $\eta$ mesons is constant over a wide range of the $\eta$ momentum. The comparison of the excitation functions to data off the deuteron and to calculations in the framework of a BUU-model show no unexplained in-medium modifications of the S$_{11}$(1535).

10 data tables

Inclusive energy distribution for incident photon energy 0.650 to 0.835 GeV.

Inclusive energy distribution for incident photon energy 0.835 to 1.050 GeV.

Inclusive energy distribution for incident photon energy 1.050 to 1.550 GeV.

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