The differential cross section of the reactionγ+p→π+ was measured at pion CM-angles of 20° and 30° for photon energies between 500 MeV and 1,400 MeV. The pions were detected in a magnetic spectrometer. By measuring each pion trajectory and by offline calculation of the initial pion parameters an energy resolution of about 2.5% FWHM was achieved. The results complete a set of data which were measured in recent years at the Bonn 2.5 GeV synchrotron. In comparison to photoproduction analyses two effects were revealed: The η cusp appears in the energy dependence of the cross section as a sharp drop atKγ=710 MeV. In the region of the third resonance the data show a greater enhancement than predicted by most of the analyses.

The process γγ→π+π−π+π− has been investigated in reactions of the typee+e−→e+e−π+π−π+π− in the single tag mode. The range of the four momentum squared of one of the virtual photons was 0.28 GeV2/c2≦Q2≦3.6 GeV2/c2, the average being 〈Q2〉=0.92 GeV2/c2; the other photon was quasi real. The reaction is mainly described by the channels γγ→ρ0ρ0 and γγ→4π (phase space), occuring with about equal probability. TheQ2-dependence of the cross section is in agreement with the ρ form factor.

The reactione+e−→e+e− A2 (1320) has been observed by detecting the decayA2→π+,π-π0. The two-photon width of theA2 has been measured to be Г(A2→γγ)=(0.09±0.27 (stat)±0.16 (syst)) keV. The cross section σ(γγ→π+,π-π0 has been determined outside theA2 resonance region.

We have determined the cross section for γγ→π+π+π−π− in a way free of assumptions about the relative contributions fromρ0ρ0,ρ02π and 4π (uncorrelated phase space). We find a sharp onset above threshold and a rather high cross section of about 200 nb aroundWγγ=1.5 GeV which consists to about 40% ofρ0ρ0 production with sizeable contributions fromρ02π and 4π (PS). The total cross section as well as theρ0ρ0 content fall rather fast at higher c.m. energies. Attempts to explain this behaviour in terms of production of known resonances are not successful so far. The angular distributions do not show any significant structure pointing to resonance formation in the 4π-system. Only theρ0-meson is observed in the moment analysis. The decay distributions of theρ0 for forward produced rhos are fairly consistent with helicity conservation of the produced rhos in accordance with the VDM picture.

The cross section for exclusive π+ electroproduction on the proton has been measured near threshold for the first time at two different values of the virtual photon polarization (ɛ∼0.2 and ɛ∼0.7). Using the low energy theorem for this reaction we deduce the axial and pseudoscalar weak form factors GA and GP at ‖t‖=0.073, 0.139, and 0.179 (GeV/c)2. The slope of GA agrees with the value obtained in neutrino experiments. GP satisfies the pion pole dominance hypothesis, which is thus verified for the first time in this range of transfer.

The reaction gamma p -> p pi0 gamma' has been measured with the Crystal Ball / TAPS detectors using the energy-tagged photon beam at the electron accelerator facility MAMI-B. Energy and angular differential cross sections for the emitted photon gamma' and angular differential cross sections for the pi0 have been determined with high statistics in the energy range of the Delta+(1232) resonance. Cross sections and the ratio of the cross section to the non-radiative process gamma p -> p pi0 are compared to theoretical reaction models, having the anomalous magnetic moment kappa_Delta+ as free parameter. As the shape of the experimental distributions is not reproduced in detail by the model calculations, currently no extraction of kappa_Delta+ is feasible.

The total 1r- -p interaction cross sections (of) were measured with an accuracy of 1.5-2% for about 50 pion energies between 140 and 360 Mev. The pion energy was known to within ± 1%. No anomalies in the energy dependence of Of were found which could indicate the existence of a p0meson with a mass in the range of 270 to 410 Mev/c2• The data are inconsistent with the energy value E2 = 650 Mev for the second maximum of Of found by Frisch et al. 7 but agree with the conclusion drawn by Brisson et al. 8 that it should be located at a lower energy ( E2 :::::: 610 Mev). The data are in agreement with the dispersion relations for 1r- -p scattering. It is thus demonstrated that the PuppiStanghellini problem as such no longer exists and that it arose only as a result of an inaccurate knowledge of the total 1r--p interaction cross section.

Approximately 700 events of the reaction K − d → K − π − pp s produced by 5.5 GeV/ c kaons were used to measure the cross section for Kπ elastic scattering in the T = 3 2 state by a Chew-Low extrapolation. The cross section does not exceed 2.1 mb and has no structure for Kπ masses from threshold up to 2.0 GeV.

Cross sections for the photoproduction of neutral pions have been measured at the 1.1-GeV Frascati electron synchrotron for bombarding photon energies k between 400 and 800 MeV and for π0 c.m. angles of θπ*=90∘, 120∘, and 135∘. The main feature of the experiment is good resolution in incident photon energy. The results are in good agreement with the existing theories in the energy range of 450 to 550 MeV. The cross sections exhibit a smooth behavior as a function of energy for k=400−600 MeV. No immediate evidence is found of a contribution of the P11 resonance. An anomaly at the limit of statistical significance appears for k≃700−740 MeV, indicating a possible structure of the so-called second resonance. We attempt to interpret the observed anomaly as a reflection of the sharp opening of the η production channel (η cusp effect).

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 .