We measured the π0 photoproduction differential cross section at 180° for a range of incident photon energies between 650 and 1750 MeV. The cross sections are dominated by the D13(1525), D15(1688), and F37(1920) resonances.

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Measurements of the differential cross section for the process γ+p→π0+p have been made at eight pion center-of-mass angles in the range 51-135° and for incident photon energies from approximately 600-1200 MeV. The bremsstrahlung photon beam used was obtained from the California Institute of Technology electron synchrotron. Both the recoil proton and one γ ray from the decay of the π0 were detected. The incident photon energy was determined by measuring the laboratory angle and time of flight of the recoil proton. The angular distributions obtained indicate that the third pion-nucleon resonance is predominantly a D(52) resonance excited by a magnetic quadrupole transition. It can also be concluded that any contribution to the π0 photoproduction cross section from a virtual vector-meson exchange process is probably negligible in the region of the second and third pion-nucleon resonances.

The polarization of recoiling protons from the photoproduction of π0 mesons on liquid hydrogen has been measured for primary photon energies between 500 and 1000 MeV over a range of π0 c.m. angles from 55° to 130°. The results show structure not observed previously in experiments of less precision. In particular, the polarization at 90° c.m. is close to zero at a primary photon energy of 900 MeV. Also, a strong dependence of polarization on π0 c.m. angle between 600 and 900 MeV was observed. A subsidiary measurement of the polarization of the recoil protons from elastic e−p scattering at 900 MeV and q2=10 F−2 gave a value (1.3±2.0)%.

The bremsstrahlung beam of the Cornell Bev electron synchrotron has been used to study the reaction γ+p→π0+p over the photon energy range 250 Mev to 1 Bev, and for center-of-mass pion angles between 20° and 70°. The recoil protons, of energies between 10 and 60 Mev, were identified and their energies determined using a range telescope of eight thin plastic scintillators enclosed in a vacuum chamber with the thin liquid hydrogen target. Correlated pulse-height information was obtained by photographing an oscilloscope display and was used to sort out the protons from mesons and electrons. Corrections were made for the background of photoprotons from the Mylar target cup, the energy loss of the protons in the liquid hydrogen, absorption and scattering in the counter telescope, and the variation of beam intensity profile with energy. Compared with previous experiments and extrapolations the results show a somewhat smaller forward differential cross section above 400 Mev. The angular distributions obtained from a least-squares fit to all existing data indicate a d32 assignment for the 760-Mev resonance level. Other implications of the data are also discussed.

The measurements on the polarization of the recoil protons from the process γ+p→π0+p have been extended to higher γ-ray energies, at 90° in the center-of-mass system. We have found at 910 Mev a polarization, P=−0.45±0.07; at 800 Mev, P=−0.42±0.10. The rather high values of P agree with the hypothesis that the neutral photoproduction in the 500-1000 Mev range can be described by the well-known three resonant states, and strongly indicate that the second and third resonance have opposite parity. The probable quantum numbers are: T=12, J=32, D pion wave for the second resonance; T=12, J=52, F wave for the third resonance.

Measurements of the differential cross section for the process γ+p→π0+p have been made at three pion center-of-mass angles: 60°, 90°, and 120°. Values were obtained at intervals of 0.05 BeV (incident laboratory photon energy, k) from approximately 0.6 to 1.2 BeV. Most of the data were obtained by detecting only the recoil protons with a large, wedge-shaped, single-focusing magnetic spectrometer and associated equipment. For θ′π0=60° and k≤0.94 BeV the π0 decays were also required, the decay photons being detected by a lead glass total absorption counter. Although the experimental resolution was considerably narrower than that of most of the previous experiments, its averaging effect was still appreciable in certain regions. Using a six-parameter fit, the data at each angle were unfolded in an effort to eliminate the effects of resolution and to obtain the true cross sections as a function of energy. The results compare reasonably well with those of previous experiments once differences in resolutions and systematic errors are taken into account. The results did not agree with the predictions of a simple resonance model with the resonance quantum numbers suggested by Peierls. The positions and widths of the two cross-section peaks in this energy region are quite similar to those observed in π−p scattering.

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The process γ+p→π0+p has been studied by detecting recoil protons from a liquid hydrogen target which was bombarded by the bremsstrahlung beam of the California Institute of Technology electron synchrotron. The angle and momentum of the recoil protons were measured by a magnetic spectrometer-three scintillation counter coincidence system. The process has been studied between photon laboratory energies of 490 and 940 Mev and between pion center-of-mass angles of 31.5° and 147°. Protons which arose from meson pair production were significant at forward laboratory angles. A correction for this contamination is discussed. The results of these measurements show two interesting features. One is that the total cross section, which falls very rapidly above the 32−32 resonance energy near 320 Mev, reaches a minimum at about 600 Mev, and then increases to a broad maximum near 800 or 900 Mev. The other striking feature of the data is that the shape of the angular distribution seems to change rather suddenly near 900 Mev.