The total cross sections for the three γp → Nππ reactions have been measured for photon energies from 400 to 800 MeV. The γ p → p π 0 π 0 and γ p → n π + π 0 cross sections have never been measured before while the γ p → p π + π − results are much improved compared to earlier data. These measurements were performed with the large acceptance hadronic detector DAPHNE, at the tagged photon beam facility of the MAMI microtron in Mainz.

The total cross section for the γn→pπ−π0 reaction has been measured over the photon energy range 450–800 MeV at the 855 MeV MAMI Microtron in Mainz with the large acceptance detector DAPHNE and using a deuterium target. As expected, this reaction has a very similar cross section to the γp→nπ+π0 channel and its amplitude is strongly underestimated by the existing double pion photoproduction models.

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.

We present differential cross-sections for the electro-production of single charged pions from deuterium for a virtual photon mass squared −1.0 GeV2 and for pion nucleon masses in the range 1.23–1.68 GeV (the 1st and 2nd resonance regions). The data are compared with predictions from fits to hydrogen data.

We have measured the cross section of four charged pion production in photon-photon interactions in the invariant mass range 1.0≦Wγγ≦3.2 GeV and up toQ2=16 GeV2. For 1.2 GeV≦Wγγ≦1.7 GeV the process is dominated by ρ0ρ0 production with a rapid rise in cross section around 1.2 GeV, well below the nominal ρ0ρ0 threshold. The observed distributions in the two particle masses and in the production and decay angles are well described by an incoherent sum of the phase-space subprocesses γγ →ρ0ρ0, →ρ0π+π−, and →π+π−π+π−. A spin-parity analysis of the ρ0ρ0 system showsJP=2+ to dominate, although 0+ is also possible forWγγ≦1.4 GeV. Negative partity states are excluded.

Data are presented for the reaction ep → ep π 0 at a nominal four-momentum transfer squared of 0.5 (GeV/ c ) 2 . The data were obtained using an extracted electron beam from NINA and two magnetic spectrometers for coincidence detection of the electron and proton. Details are given of the experimental method and the results are given for isobar masses in the range 1.19 – 1.73 GeV/ c 2 .

The differential cross sections of the proton Compton scattering around the second resonance have been measured at a c.m. angle of 90° for incident photon energies between 450 MeV and 950 MeV in steps of 50 MeV, and at an angle of 60° for energies between 600 MeV and 800 MeV. The results show that the peak of the 2nd resonance agrees with that of the pion photoproduction process. We also calculated the proton Compton scattering based on unitarity and fixed- t dispersion relations. The calculation describes well the data of the cross section and the recoil proton polarization.

The reaction γ V p → p π + π − was studied in the W , Q 2 region 1.3–2.8 GeV, 0.3–1.4 GeV 2 using the streamer chamber at DESY. A detailed analysis of rho production via γ V p→ ϱ 0 p is presented. Near threshold rho production has peripheral and non-peripheral contributions of comparable magnitude. At higher energies ( W > 2 GeV) the peripheral component is dominant. The Q 2 dependence of σ ( γ V p→ ϱ 0 p) follows that of the rho propagator as predicted by VDM. The slope of d σ /d t at 〈 Q 2 〉 = 0.4 and 0.8 GeV 2 is within errors equal to its value at Q 2 = 0. The overall shape of the ϱ 0 is t dependent as in photoproduction, but is independent of Q 2 . The decay angular distribution shows that longitudinal rhos dominate in the threshold region. At higher energies transverse rhos are dominant. Rho production by transverse photons proceeds almost exclusively by natural parity exchange, σ T N ⩾ (0.83 ± 0.06) σ T for 2.2 < W < 2.8 GeV. The s -channel helicity-flip amplitudes are small compared to non-flip amplitudes. The ratio R = σ L / σ T was determined assuming s -channel helicity conservation. We find R = ξ 2 Q 2 / M ϱ 2 with ξ 2 ≈ 0.4 for 〈 W 〉 = 2.45 GeV. Interference between rho production amplitudes from longitudinal and transverse photons is observed. With increasing energy the phase between the two amplitudes decreases. The observed features of rho electroproduction are consistent with a dominantly diffractive production mechanism for W > 2 GeV.

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 .

We present a measurement of the cross section for the reaction e + e − → e + e − π + π − π + π − at SPEAR. This channel is found to be large and dominated by the process γγ → ϱ 0 ϱ 0 → π + π − π + π − . The cross section, which is small just above the four-pion threshold, exhibits a large enhancement near the ϱ 0 ϱ 0 threshold.