Angular distributions of recoil-proton polarization in elastic π±p scattering were measured at 523-, 572-, and 689-MeV incident pion kinetic energy. Polarization measurements were made by observing the azimuthal asymmetry in the subsequent scattering of recoil protons in large carbon-plate spark chambers. Typical strong variation of the polarization with pion scattering angle near the πp diffraction minima was observed. Since existing opinion favors a D13 resonance at 600 MeV, a phase-shift analysis was attempted in order to confirm the existence and parity of this resonance. Available πp total and differential cross sections, these polarization data, and some possible restrictive assumptions related to the 600-MeV resonance were used in the analysis. Though the polarization results aided significantly in restricting the number of acceptable phase-shift sets, still, many plausible and qualitatively different sets were found.

Angular distributions of recoil-proton polarization in elastic π±p scattering were measured at 864-, 981-, and 1301-MeV incident pion kinetic energy. Polarization measurements were made by observing the azimuthal asymmetry in the subsequent scattering of recoil protons in large carbon-plate spark chambers. The spark chambers proved to be very suitable polarization analyzer detectors. Strong variation of the polarization with backward pion scattering angle was observed.

The elastic differential cross section for the scattering of negative pions by hydrogen was measured at laboratory-system pion kinetic energies of 230, 290, 370, and 427 Mev. The elastically scattered pions were detected by a counter telescope which discriminated against recoil protons and inelastic pions on the basis of range. Differential cross sections were obtained at nine angles for each energy and were fitted by a least-squares program to a series of Legendre polynomials. At the three higher energies, D waves are required to give satisfactory fits to the data. The real parts of the forward-scattering amplitudes calculated from this experiment are in agreement with the predictions of dispersion theory. The results of this experiment, in conjunction with data from other pion-nucleon scattering experiments, support the hypothesis of charge independence at these higher energies.

Single-pion production has been studied in the reactions π−p→π−π+n and π−p→π−π0p at 790, 830, and 870 MeV. A total of 4193 events in these two channels, divided approximately equally between the three energies, have been identified. The most interesting feature of the data is the tendency for events to concentrate at high values of mππ and low values of four-momentum transfer. These effects are discussed in terms of conventional isobar models and a model involving two-pion exchange. Partial cross sections for the reactions studied are reported for each energy.

The interactions of 604 MeV π− mesons in a hydrogen bubble chamber have been systematically analyzed. In 33 000 pictures a total of 8052 usable events were found, corresponding to cross sections of 18.9±1.3 mb for σ(elastic), 4.98±0.54 mb for σ(π−pπ0), 7.87±0.91 mb for σ(π−nπ+), 14.0±1.0 mb for σ(neutrals), with σ(two−pionproduction)<0.2 mb, for a total cross section of 45.9±1.9 mb at this energy. The angular distribution for elastic scattering was fitted with a fifth-order polynomial in cosθ which gave a value of dσdΩ(0°) consistent with dispersion theory. The pion-pion effective-mass distributions for both single-pion-production channels showed pronounced peaking at high mass values, strongly inconsistent with simple isobar-production kinematics. Simple one-pion exchange does not appear to play a significant role.

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We have measured the polarization parameter in π−p elastic scattering at laboratory momenta of 1180, 1250, and 1360 MeV/c in the angular interval 65°<θc.m.<115°. The results were used to show that the polarized target used in these (and other similar) experiments was uniformly polarized. These measurements were also used to resolve pre-existing experimental discrepancies in the determination of the polarization parameter, and to clarify the behavior of scattering amplitudes in this energy range. We show that local measurements of this type are important in resolving discrete ambiguities affecting the energy continuation of the amplitudes. An important by-product of this experiment is the development of a fast method of reconstructing particle trajectories and fitting the elastic events, which could have a significant impact for future high-statistics experiments.

The contradiction of the σ term of pion-nucleon scattering as deduced from the Karlsruhe-Helsinki phase shifts with the smaller value calculated by the chiral perturbation theory of QCD is well known. In an effort to clarify the discrepancy we have determined the real part of the isospin-even forward-scattering amplitude of pion-nucleon scattering at a pion energy Tπ=54.3 MeV by measurement of the elastic scattering of positive and negative pions on protons in the Coulomb-nuclear interference region. The deduced value is in agreement with the prediction of the Karlsruhe-Helsinki phase-shift analysis for that energy. The resulting large value of the σ term may be interpreted as being due to the influence of s¯s sea pairs even at large distances (small Q2) as previously suggested by the European Muon Collaboration measurement of deep-inelastic scattering of polarized muons on polarized protons.

The real part of the isospin-even forward-scattering amplitude of pion-nucleon scattering has been determined at a pion energy of Tπ=55 MeV by measurement of the elastic scattering of positive and negative pions on protons within the Coulomb-nuclear interference region. The value confirms the prediction of the Karlsruhe-Helsinki phase-shift analysis for that energy. These phases have been used to determine the σ term of pion-nucleon scattering by means of dispersion relations, resulting in a value for σ which is in contradiction with chiral perturbation theory of QCD.

Total and differential elastic cross-section data are presented at eight incident π+ momenta: 1.28, 1.34, 1.40, 1.43, 1.55, 1.68, 1.77, and 1.84 GeVc. These data were obtained from a hydrogen-bubble-chamber exposure at the Bevatron, and contain more than 65 000 events. This represents more than 1½ times the world's data hitherto available in this energy region.