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.

We have identified 262 doubly tagged two-photon events. A subset of the data shows an enhancement of 21 events in the inclusive two-photon mass squared distribution between 0.8 and 2.2 GeV 2 . If these events result from spin 2 resonance production then Γ γγ = 9.5 ± 3.9 ± 2.4 keV (statistical and systematic). From another subset of 58 events in which the final state could be classified we determine the two-photon hadron to muon cross section ratio R γγ = 1.1 ± 0.3 ± 0.3.

We study the processes $e^+ e^-\to 2(\pi^+\pi^-)\pi^0\gamma$, $2(\pi^+\pi^-)\eta\gamma$, $K^+ K^-\pi^+\pi^-\pi^0\gamma$ and $K^+ K^-\pi^+\pi^-\eta\gamma$ with the hard photon radiated from the initial state. About 20000, 4300, 5500 and 375 fully reconstructed events, respectively, are selected from 232 fb$^{-1}$ of BaBar data. The invariant mass of the hadronic final state defines the effective $e^+ e^-$ center-of-mass energy, so that the obtained cross sections from the threshold to about 5 GeV can be compared with corresponding direct \epem measurements, currently available only for the $\eta\pi^+\pi^-$ and $\omega\pi^+\pi^-$ submodes of the $e^+ e^-\to 2(\pi^+\pi^-)\pi^0$ channel. Studying the structure of these events, we find contributions from a number of intermediate states, and we extract their cross sections where possible. In particular, we isolate the contribution from $e^+ e^-\to\omega(782)\pi^+\pi^-$ and study the $\omega(1420)$ and $\omega(1650)$ resonances. In the charmonium region, we observe the $J/\psi$ in all these final states and several intermediate states, as well as the $\psi(2S)$ in some modes, and we measure the corresponding branching fractions.

This paper reports measurements of processes: e+e- -> gamma KsK+pi-, e+e- -> gamma K+K-pi0, e+e- -> gamma phi eta, and e+e- -> gamma phi pi0. The initial state radiated photon allows to cover the hadronic final state in the energy range from thresholds up to ~4.6 GeV. The overall size of the data sample analyzed is 232 fb-1, collected by the BaBar detector running at the PEP-II e+e- storage ring. From the Dalitz plot analysis of the KsK+pi- final state, moduli and relative phase of the isoscalar and the isovector components of the e+e- -> K K*(892) cross section are determined. Parameters of phi and rho recurrences are also measured, using a global fitting procedure which exploits the interconnection among amplitudes, moduli and phases of the e+e- -> KsK+pi-, K+K-pi0, phi eta final states. The cross section for the OZI-forbidden process e+e- -> phi pi0, and the J/psi branching fractions to KK*(892) and K+K-eta are also measured.

We study the processes e+ e- --> 3(pi+pi-)gamma, 2(pi+pi-pi0)gamma and K+ K- 2(pi+pi-)gamma, with the photon radiated from the initial state. About 20,000, 33,000 and 4,000 fully reconstructed events, respectively, have been selected from 232 fb-1 of BaBar data. The invariant mass of the hadronic final state defines the effective e+e- center-of-mass energy, so that these data can be compared with the corresponding direct e+e- measurements. From the 3(pi+pi-), 2(pi+pi-pi0) and K+ K- 2(pi+pi-) mass spectra, the cross sections for the processes e+ e- --> 3(pi+pi-), e+ e- --> 2(pi+pi-pi0) and e+ e- --> K+ K- 2(pi+pi-) are measured for center-of-mass energies from production threshold to 4.5 GeV. The uncertainty in the cross section measurement is typically 6-15%. We observe the J/psi in all these final states and measure the corresponding branching fractions.

We study the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-\gamma$, with a hard photon radiated from the initial state. About 60,000 fully reconstructed events have been selected from 89 $fb^{-1}$ of BaBar data. The invariant mass of the hadronic final state defines the effective \epem center-of-mass energy, so that these data can be compared with the corresponding direct $e^+e^-$ measurements. From the $4\pi$-mass spectrum, the cross section for the process $e^+e^-\to\pi^+\pi^-\pi^+\pi^-$ is measured for center-of-mass energies from 0.6 to 4.5 $GeV/c^2$. The uncertainty in the cross section measurement is typically 5%. We also measure the cross sections for the final states $K^+ K^- \pi^+\pi^-$ and $K^+ K^- K^+ K^-$. We observe the $J/\psi$ in all three final states and measure the corresponding branching fractions. We search for X(3872) in $J/\psi (\to\mu^+\mu^-) \pi^+\pi^-$ and obtain an upper limit on the product of the $e^+e^-$ width of the X(3872) and the branching fraction for $X(3872) \to J/\psi\pi^+\pi^-$.

We report on a high statistics measurement of the total and differential cross sections of the process gamma gamma -> pi^+ pi^- in the pi^+ pi^- invariant mass range 0.8 GeV/c^2 < W < 1.5 GeV/c^2 with 85.9 fb^{-1} of data collected at sqrt{s}=10.58 GeV and 10.52 GeV with the Belle detector. A clear signal of the f_0(980) resonance is observed in addition to the f_2(1270) resonance. An improved 90% confidence level upper limit Br.(eta'(958) -> pi^+ pi^-) < 2.9 x 10^{-3} is obtained for P- and CP-violating decay of the eta'(958) meson using the most conservative assumption about the interference with the background.

We report a high-statistics measurement of differential cross sections for the process gamma gamma -> pi^0 pi^0 in the kinematic range 0.6 GeV <= W <= 4.0 GeV and |cos theta*| <= 0.8, where W and theta* are the energy and pion scattering angle, respectively, in the gamma gamma center-of-mass system. Differential cross sections are fitted to obtain information on S, D_0, D_2, G_0 and G_2 waves. The G waves are important above W ~= 1.6 GeV. For W <= 1.6 GeV the D_2 wave is dominated by the f_2(1270) resonance while the S wave requires at least one additional resonance besides the f_0(980), which may be the f_0(1370) or f_0(1500). The differential cross sections are fitted with a simple parameterization to determine the parameters (the mass, total width and Gamma_{gamma gamma}B(f_0 -> pi^0 pi^0)) of this scalar meson as well as the f_0(980). The helicity 0 fraction of the f_2(1270) meson, taking into account interference for the first time, is also obtained.

Large-angle cross sections for γd→π0d are systematically measured in the photon energy range between 500 and 1000 MeV. A good fit is obtained by use of a Glauber-model calculation which includes the dibaryon resonances F33(2.26) and G41(2.51), but the fit has an unusual nature in the role of resonance and nonresonance contributions.

The polarization of the recoil proton in neutral single-pion photoproduction from hydrogen, γ+p→p+π0, has been measured for pion center-of-mass angles near 90° at 7 photon energies from 450 to 900 MeV. The polarization rises to a maximum of 0.58 near 600 MeV and is still 0.42 at 900 MeV. The sign of the polarization is negative in the sense of k×q, where k is the photon momentum and q is the pion momentum. The measured values are given as functions of laboratory photon energy and c.m. pion angle as follows: 450 MeV, 109°, -0.16±0.14; 525 MeV, 84°, -0.36±0.19; 585 MeV, 86°, -0.58±0.15; 660 MeV, 77°, -0.51±0.17; 755 MeV, 76°, -0.55±0.15; 810 MeV, 89°, -0.45±0.17; 895 MeV, 90°, -0.42±0.16. The recoil protons were momentum-analyzed with a magnetic spectrometer. Nuclear emulsion was used as scatterer and detector. The emulsion technique is discussed in detail. The number of individual scatterings in emulsion used for each measurement varied between 750 and 1000.