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).
We have made measurements of polarization in π−p elastic scattering, with emphasis over the backward region, at 1.60 to 2.28 GeVc. The results indicate the absence of u-channel dominance in the backward region, as was observed in the case of π+p scattering. Comparisons have been made with predictions of various phase-shift analyses which show that the agreement is generally very poor in the backward region.
Measurements of polarization in π+p elastic scattering have been made at 1.60, 1.80, 2.11, and 2.31 GeVc. The data cover the entire angular range, with emphasis on the backward region. Comparisons have been made with both u-channel and t-channel models, as well as with predictions of phase-shift analyses. While the agreement is generally poor in all cases, the best agreement is with some t-channel predictions.