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The photoproduction of charged pions from deuterium has been studied using a "monochromatic" gamma-ray beam of 292±8 Mev. The energy spectra of both positive and negative pions at the laboratory angle of 120° were determined and both agreed within experimental error with that predicted by the theory of Lax and Feshbach. The negative-to-positive ratio at 120° was 1.07±0.16, and within experimental error, was independent of meson energy. At an angle of 73° the ratio was 0.90±0.23 for 98.7 Mev mesons. The measured negative-to-positive ratio disagrees both with the simple classical picture of Brueckner and the phenomenological theory of Watson. Some results on the ratio using a bremsstrahlung beam are given.

An accurate measurement of the differential cross section for the photoproduction of positive pions from protons has been made at the Berkeley synchrotron for photon energies of 260 and 290 Mev. The mesons were produced in a thin-walled liquid-hydrogen target, and the meson-detection apparatus utilized the characteristic decay of the pion. The measurements were done in two steps, from 0° to 50° with equipment specifically designed to reduce a very high forward-angle positron background, and from 30° to 160° with equipment whose efficiency and solid angle could be accurately determined. The abrupt flattening of the observed cross section in the region forward of 40° is due to "photoelectric ejection" of pions from the cloud surrounding the nucleon. The results are compared to the theory of photo-production derived from the dispersion relations, and the agreement is satisfactory within the limitations of the theory.

Measurements of the cross section for photoproduction of [...] mesons from hydrogen have been extended to angles as small as 5[...] in the c. m. system, using a magnetic spectrometer. At a photon energy of 1025 Mev, the cross section decreases as the angle changes from 5[degrees] to 13[degrees], reaching a minimum before increasing again to the maximum near 40[degrees] which has been previously observed (5). Less extensive measurements at energies 700, 800, 900, and 960 Mev all show a similar rapid decrease with angle in the angular range less than 15[degrees] c.m., although below 960 Mev no actual minimum is observed. These effects at small angles arise presumably from the "retardation term", or "meson current" term and its interference with other contributions to the photoproduction amplitude. It is interesting that a minimum near 15[degrees] is characteristic of the pure Born approximation (retardation term plus "S-wave"). Values of the 0[degree] cross section that are much more accurate than previous estimates have been obtained. An attempt has been made to extract a value of the pion-nucleon coupling constant by an extrapolation into the region cos [...]. Using the best set of data, the value obtained was [...].

The differential cross section for charge-exchange scattering of negative pions by hydrogen has been observed at 230, 260, 290, 317, and 371 Mev. The reaction was observed by detecting one gamma ray from the π0 decay with a scintillation-counter telescope. A least-squares analysis was performed to fit the observations to the function dσdω=Σl=15alPl−1(cosθ) in the c.m. frame. The best fit to our experimental measurements requires only s- and p-wave scattering. The results (in mb) are: The least-squares analysis indicates that d-wave scattering is not established in this energy range.

Total cross sections for negative pions on protons were measured at laboratory energies of 230, 290, 370, 427, and 460 Mev. The measurements were made in the same pion beams as and at energies identical with those of our π−−p differential scattering experiments. Comparisons of the total and differential scattering can be made with the dispersion theory at a given energy without introducing the systematic errors that would normally enter due to uncertainties in the parameters of more than one pion beam. The measured total cross sections are found to agree within statistics with other measured values, and with the sums of elastic, inelastic, and charge-exchange cross sections measured at this laboratory. The results are:

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.

The ratio of the cross sections for photoproduction of neutral pions from neutrons to that from protons has been obtained at average photon energies of 750, 875, and 1050 mev at a pion CM angle of 60° and at average photon energies of 875 and 1050 mev at a pion CM angle of 90°. The experimental technique required simultaneous detection of both the pions and the nucleons. Pions were detected by three scintillation counters. Lead plates of 2.4 radiation lengths and 1.2 radiation lengths were placed in front of the second and third counters. Neutral pions were identified by the absence of output in the first counter and the large outputs in the second and third counters. Nucleons were detected in two scintillation counters. The second of the two counters is 11” thick and has approximately 20% efficiency of detecting neutrons. Neutrons were identified by the absence of output in the first counter. The energy of the incident photons was determined by synchrotron subtraction. Since the statistical accuracy of synchrotron subtraction is poor, a system of three fast coincidence circuits was used as a time-of-flight instrument to reduce the number of events initiated by low energy photons. The statistical errors assigned to the ratio range between 15-30%. The results of this experiment agree with the results of Bingham within statistical errors, but show a general tendency for the σ^(no)/ σ^o ratio to lower. The ratio of σ^(no)/ σ^o obtained in this experiment ranges between 0.4 and 0.8. The cross sections for neutral pion photoproduction from neutrons are derived from the σ^(no)/ σ^o ratio and the Caltech data on neutral pion photoproduction from hydrogen.

A magnetic spectrometer and counter telescope system was used to detect positive pions photoproduced singly in a liquid hydrogen target. Measurements of the differential cross section were made at mean laboratory photon energies, k = 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, and 1.4 GeV and in the angular range from 5° to 165 ° in the center-of-momentum system of the pion. The shape of the angular distribution of the differential cross sections at each value of k is very similar to that of the previously measured distribution at k = 1.0 GeV. The angular distributions were integrated to give the total cross sections. The third pion-nucleon "resonance" peak is seen to be very close to k = 1.0 GeV. A leveling off of the total cross section at k = 1.4 GeV may be due to the fourth "resonance". The accurate small angle data at k = 1.1 and 1.2 GeV permitted a reasonable extrapolation of the differential cross section to the pion-nucleon pole. The value of the pion-nucleon coupling constant, f, was extracted from this extrapolation. The result was f^2 = 0.078 ± 0.011.

Measurements of π0 photoproduction have been made at 235, 285, 335, and 435 MeV, using a beam of polarized x rays. Using a calculated value of polarization, an analysis is made which indicates a possible need for γ, ρ, π, or γ, ω, π coupling. The polarization calculations are checked by measurements made as a function of photon production angle at 335 MeV.

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 cross section for the reaction [...] was measured at the Caltech synchrotron. The [...] was detected by measuring its decay gamma rays with two lead glass, total absorption Cherenkov counters. The results are three angular distributions at k = 911, 1180, and 1390 MeV, at forward angles from 3 degrees to 90 degrees. The deuteron/proton ratio differs significantly from 2.0, but final state effects from the use of a deuteron target make impossible quantitative conclusions about the neutron cross section.

Differential cross sections for the reaction π−p→π0n were measured at nine incident-pion kinetic energies in the interval from 500 to 1300 MeV. The negative pion beam from the bevatron was focused on a liquidhydrogen target completely surrounded by a cubic array of six steel-plate spark chambers. The spark chambers were triggered on events with neutral final states. Charge-exchange events were identified from the one-shower and two-shower events in the spark-chamber pictures. By the Monte Carlo technique, the π0 distributions were calculated from the bisector distributions of the two-shower π0 events together with the observed γ-ray distributions of the one-shower π0 events. These π0 distributions were fitted with both Legendre-polynomial expansions and power-series expansions by the method of least squares. The extrapolated forward differential cross sections are in good agreement with the dispersion calculations. The Legendre coefficients for the differential cross sections in isospin state T=12 were obtained by combining our results with available data on π±p elastic scattering. In the light of existing phase-shift solutions, the behavior of these coefficients is discussed. The D5F5 interference term that peaks near 900 MeV is verified to be in isospin state T=12 only. We report here also the total neutral cross sections and the cross sections for the production of neutral multipion final states 2π0n and 3π0n. The 4π solid angle and the calibrated energy response of the spark chambers contribute to the accuracy of the results.

The differential cross sections for single-π+ photoproduction from hydrogen have been measured over a range of momentum transfers from -2×10−4 to -2 (GeV/c)2, and photon energies from 5 to 16 GeV. The differential cross section increases by roughly a factor of 2 as the magnitude of the square of the momentum transfer decreases from 0.02 (GeV/c)2. The cross section falls approximately as exp(−3|t|) at large momentum transfers, with a similar momentum-transfer dependence of the cross section at all photon energies studied.

Cross section angular distributions for [...] photoproduction from hydrogen were measured for 28 laboratory photon energies from 574 to 1211 MeV. At most energies, the [...] center of mass angle was varied from 60[degrees] to 170[degrees] in steps of 10[degrees]. A magnetic spectrometer was used to measure the momentum and angle of the recoil proton. A scintillation counter hodoscope with lead convertors was used to detect the presence of at least one of the [...] decay gamma rays. For a majority of the measurements the [...] rates were separated from a contamination of pi pair rates using the difference in their distribution among the gamma counters. For the remainder of the measurements, charged pi pairs were eliminated using veto counters in front of the gamma counters. Internal inconsistency and comparison with other experiments indicate that the veto data are 10 to 15% low near 90[degrees] in the region of 750 MeV. The remainder of the data show good internal consistency and fair agreement with data of other experiments. The results show a peak at 140[degrees] near 1050 MeV which had been expected but not previously measured. Comparison of the backward angle data with that from experiments measuring cross sections very near 180[degrees] indicates either an inconsistency between experiments or a rapid drop in the cross section near 180[degrees] in the region around 800 MeV.

We have investigated the photoproduction process γ+p→π++n over a wide range of energies and u values at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) accelerator. We also have investigated γ+p→π−+N*++ at one value of u and γ+p→K++Λ0, Σ0 at one u value and three energies. Our results for dσdu for the photoproduction of π+ mesons from hydrogen are roughly α2π of the corresponding cross sections for the elastic scattering of π− mesons from hydrogen. The u dependence of our cross sections is not dominated by nucleon exchange as it is in the case of π+p elastic scattering.

The cross section for γp→π−Δ++(1236), measured at 5, 8, 11, and 16 GeV from nearzero momentum transfer to -1 GeV2 (-2 GeV2 at 16 GeV), rises from small t to a maximum near −t=mπ2, then falls as e12t out to −t≈0.2 GeV2, after which it becomes roughly equal in slope and magnitude to the single π+ photoproduction cross section (e3t). At fixed t, the cross section varies as k−2, where k is the laboratory photon energy. The results do not agree well with the simple vector-dominance model.

We have studied the ratio R=[dσ(γd→π−pp)dt][dσ(γd→π+nn)dt]−1 at 8 and 16 GeV for momentum transfers |t| from about 0.001 to 1.3 GeV2. R is close to unity for |t|<mπ2, but falls very rapidly with increasing |t|, passing through ½ near |t|=0.1 GeV2 and having a minium value of about 13 near |t|=0.4 GeV2; it slowly increases at larger momentum transfers. These results are similar to those obtained in other laboratories at 3.4 and 5 GeV. This implies considerable interference between the isoscalar and isovector photon amplitudes.

Cross sections for the reactions γp→K+Λ and γp→K+Σ0 have been measured at squared four-momentum transfer (−t) from 0.005 to 2 GeV2, at photon energies 5, 8, 11, and 16 GeV. For −t>0.2 GeV2 each of the K+ cross sections is about ⅓ of the π+n photoproduction cross section, having nearly the same energy and momentum-transfer dependence. The K+ cross sections fall off at small |t|, however, in contrast to the sharp forward spike seen in π+n; this leads to a disagreement with an SU(3) prediction for −t<0.1 GeV2. The ratio of K+Σ0 to K+Λ cross sections is typically between 0.5 and 1.0.

Cross sections for π0 photoproduction from hydrogen in the backward direction have been measured for photon energies of 6, 8, 12, and 18 GeV. The range of momentum transfer covered in these measurements is −1 (GeVc)2<u<0(GeVc)2, dσdu is found to have a backward peak and decreases with energy as s−3.0±0.2. Photoproduction of η0 and ρ0 mesons has also been observed.

Measurements on large-angle photoproduction of π+ mesons from hydrogen have been made at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center for photon energies between 5 and 15.5 GeV and u values from +0.05 to -1.8 (GeV/c)2. The measured cross section decreased with energy approximately as k−3, showing no shrinkage in this range of u values. Furthermore, it had a smooth u dependence with no sign of a dip at u≃−0.15 (GeV/c)2 as would be expected from nucleon exchange. π−Δ++ production was measured at 5 GeV and shows a rapid decrease with increasing |u|.