The Longitudinal Polarimeter at HERA

The design, construction and operation of a Compton back-scattering laser polarimeter at the HERA storage ring at DESY are described. The device measures the longitudinal polarization of the electron beam between the spin rotators at the HERMES experiment with a fractional systematic uncertainty of 1.6%. A measurement of the beam polarization to an absolute statistical precision of 0.01 requires typically one minute when the device is operated in the multi-photon mode. The polarimeter also measures the polarization of each individual electron bunch to an absolute statistical precision of 0.06 in approximately five minutes. It was found that colliding and non-colliding bunches can have substantially different polarizations. This information is important to the collider experiments H1 and ZEUS for their future longitudinally polarized electron program because those experiments use the colliding bunches only.Comment: 21 pages (Latex), 14 figures (EPS

New results on the pd --> 3He eta production near threshold

Measurements on the eta meson production in proton-deuteron collisions have been performed using the COSY-11 facility at COSY Juelich. Here we present preliminary results on total and differential cross sections for the pd --> 3He eta reaction at five excess energies between Q = 5.1 and Q = 40.6 MeV. The obtained angular distributions for the emitted eta mesons in the center of mass system expose a transition from an almost isotropic emission to a highly anisotropic distribution. The extracted total cross sections support a strong eta-3He final state interaction and will be compared with model predictions.Comment: Presented at MESON 2004: 8th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interactions, Cracow, Poland, 4-8 Jun 2004, 3 pages, Submitted to Int. J. Mod. Phys.

Near-Threshold eta Meson Production in Proton-Proton Collisions

The production of eta mesons has been measured in the proton-proton interaction close to the reaction threshold using the COSY-11 internal facility at the cooler synchrotron COSY. Total cross sections were determined for eight different excess energies in the range from 0.5 MeV to 5.4 MeV. The energy dependence of the total cross section is well described by the available phase-space volume weighted by FSI factors for the proton-proton and proton-eta pairs.Comment: 9 pages, 1 table, 5 figure

Search for Bremsstrahlung radiation in quasi-free n p --> n p gamma reactions

Due to the high sensitivity of the N N --> N N gamma reaction to the nucleon-nucleon potential, Bremsstrahlung radiation is used as a tool to investigate details of the nucleon-nucleon interaction. Such investigations can be performed at the cooler synchrotron COSY in the Research Centre Juelich, by dint of the COSY-11 detection system. The results of the identification of Bremsstrahlung radiation emitted via the d p --> d p gamma reaction in data taken with a proton target and a deuteron beam are presented and discussed.Comment: 3 pages; Presented at Meson 2004: 8th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction, Krakow, Poland, 4-8 June 2004; Submitted to International Journal of Modern Physics

Threshold Hyperon Production at COSY-11

The Lambda, Sigma0 and Sigma+ hyperon production in NN collisions is studied at the COSY - 11 installation in order to investigate the production mechanism as well as to extract information about the Y-N interaction.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figure

Monitoring of the accelerator beam distributions for internal target facilities

We describe a direct method for monitoring the geometrical dimensions of a synchrotron beam at the target position for internal target installations. The method allows for the observation of the proton beam size as well as the position of the beam relative to the target. As a first demonstration of the technique, we present results obtained by means of the COSY-11 detection system installed at the cooler synchrotron COSY. The influence of the stochastic cooling on the COSY proton beam dimensions is also investigated.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to Nucl. Inst. & Meth.

Associated strangeness production at threshold

The associated strangeness dissociation at threshold has been studied at the COSY-11 facility measuring the hyperon - and the K+K- meson pair production. Measurements of the near threshold Lambda and Sigma0 production via the pp -> pK+ Lambda / Sigma0 reaction at COSY-11 have shown that the Lambda / Sigma0 cross section ratio exceeds the value at high excess energies (Q >= 300 MeV) by an order of magnitude. For a better understanding additional data have been taken between 13 MeV and 60 MeV excess energy. The near threshold production of the charged kaon-antikaon pair is related to the discussion about the nature of the scalar states in the 1 GeV/c^2 mass range, i.e. the f0(980) and a0(980). The interpretation as a K anti-K molecule is strongly dependent on the K anti-K interaction which can be studied via the production channel. A first total cross section value on the reaction pp -> ppK+K- at an excess energy of 17 MeV i.e. below the phi production threshold was measured.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, Presented at Conference on Quarks and Nuclear Physics (QNP 2002), Julich, Germany, 9-14 Jun 200

Strangeness Production in Proton-Proton Collisions Close to Threshold

Exclusive data on the reactions pp -> ppK+K- and pp -> pK+ Lambda/Sigma0 have been taken at the cooler synchrotron COSY close to threshold. At equal excess energies, an enhancement of the Lambda/Sigma0 ratio by one order of magnitude has been observed compared to data at higher excess energies. New results obtained at the COSY-11 facility explore the transition region between this low-energy Sigma0 suppression and excess energies of 60 MeV. A first total cross section for elementary antikaon production below the phi threshold has been determined, two orders of magnitude smaller compared to kaon production at the same excess energy.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures, Talk given by P. Moskal at 16th International Conference on Particles and Nuclei (PANIC 02), Osaka, Japan, 30 Sep - 4 Oct 200

Near Threshold K+K- Meson-Pair Production in Proton-Proton Collisions

The near threshold total cross section and angular distributions of K+K- pair production via the reaction pp --> ppK+K- have been studied at an excess energy of Q = 17 MeV using the COSY-11 facility at the cooler synchrotron COSY. The obtained cross section as well as an upper limit at an excess energy of Q = 3 MeV represent the first measurements on the K+K- production in the region of small excess energies where production via the channel pp --> pp Phi --> ppK+K- is energetically forbidden. The possible influence of a resonant production via intermediate scalar states f0(980) and a0(980) is discussed.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures, replaced with revised version, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Energy Dependence of the Near-Threshold Total Cross-Section for the pp --> pp eta' Reaction

Total cross sections for the pp --> pp eta' reaction have been measured in the excess energy range from Q = 1.53 MeV to Q = 23.64 MeV. The experiment has been performed at the internal installation COSY-11 using a stochastically cooled proton beam of the COoler SYnchrotron COSY and a hydrogen cluster target. The determined energy dependence of the total cross section weakens the hypothesis of the S-wave repulsive interaction between the eta' meson and the proton. New data agree well with predictions based on the phase-space distribution modified by the proton-proton final-state-interaction (FSI) only.Comment: 12 pages, 1 table, 4 figure