The energy dependence of backward π+p elastic scattering has been measured for incident π momenta 2.0-6.0 GeV/c in steps of typically 100 MeV/c. Values are presented for both the differential cross section extrapolated to 180° and the slope of the backward peak as a function of momentum. In the s channel we see the effects of the established Δ++ resonances and evidence for the Δ(3230). Also, the data show the existence of a negative-parity Δ resonance with mass ∼2200 MeV/c2.
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 differential cross sections for the elastic scattering of π+, π−, K+, K−, p, and p¯ on protons have been measured in the t interval -0.04 to -0.75 GeV2 at five momenta: 50, 70, 100, 140, and 175 GeV/c. The t distributions have been parametrized by the quadratic exponential form dσdt=Aexp(B|t|+C|t|2) and the energy dependence has been described in terms of a single-pole Regge model. The pp and K+p diffraction peaks are found to shrink with α′∼0.20 and ∼0.15 GeV−2, respectively. The p¯p diffraction peak is antishrinking while π±p and K−p are relatively energy-independent. Total elastic cross sections are calculated by integrating the differential cross sections. The rapid decline in σel observed at low energies has stopped and all six reactions approach relatively constant values of σel. The ratio of σelσtot approaches a constant value for all six reactions by 100 GeV, consistent with the predictions of the geometric-scaling hypothesis. This ratio is ∼0.18 for pp and p¯p, and ∼0.12-0.14 for π±p and K±p. A crossover is observed between K+p and K−p scattering at |t|∼0.19 GeV2, and between pp and p¯p at |t|∼0.11 GeV2. Inversion of the cross sections into impact-parameter space shows that protons are quite transparent to mesons even in head-on collisions. The probability for a meson to pass through a proton head-on without interaction inelastically is ∼20% while it is only ∼6% for an incident proton or antiproton. Finally, the results are compared with various quark-model predictions.
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