Neutral Pion Production in the Threshold Region

We give an overview of the physics motivation and evolution of the neutral pion photoproduction measurements in the threshold region conducted in the A2 collaboration at MAMI. The latest two experiments have been performed with the almost 4-pi Crystal Ball detector. The first was with a linearly polarized photon beam and unpolarized liquid-hydrogen target. The data analysis is now complete and the linearly polarized beam asymmetry along with differential cross sections provide the most stringent test to date of the predictions of Chiral Perturbation Theory and its energy region of convergence. More recently a measurement was performed using both circularly polarized photons and a transversely polarized butanol frozen-spin target, with the goal of extracting both the target and beam-target asymmetries. From these we intend to extract pi-N scattering sensitive information for the first time in photo-pion reactions. This will be used to test isospin conservation and further test dynamics of chiral symmetry breaking in QCD as calculated at low energies by Chiral Perturbation Theory.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, submitted to EPJ Special Topics as part of the proceedings of the Conclusive Symposium of Collaborative Research Centre 44

Quasi-free Compton Scattering from the Deuteron and Nucleon Polarizabilities

Cross sections for quasi-free Compton scattering from the deuteron were measured for incident energies of 236--260 MeV at the laboratory angle -135 degrees. The recoil nucleons were detected in a liquid-scintillator array situated at 20 degrees. The measured differential cross sections were used, with the calculations of Levchuk et al., to determine the polarizabilities of the bound nucleons. For the bound proton, the extracted values were consistent with the accepted value for the free proton. Combining our results for the bound neutron with those from Rose et al., we obtain one-sigma constraints of alpha_n = 7.6-14.0 and beta_n = 1.2-7.6.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted in PR

Dispersion Effects in Nucleon Polarisabilities

We present a formalism to extract the dynamical nucleon polarisabilities defined via a multipole expansion of the structure amplitudes in nucleon Compton scattering. In contradistinction to the static polarisabilities, dynamical polarisabilities gauge the response of the internal degrees of freedom of a composed object to an external, real photon field of arbitrary energy. Being energy dependent, they therefore contain additional information about dispersive effects induced by internal relaxation mechanisms, baryonic resonances and meson production thresholds of the nucleon. We give explicit formulae to extract the dynamical electric and magnetic dipole as well as quadrupole polarisabilities from low energy nucleon Compton scattering up to the one pion production threshold and discuss the connection to the definition of static nucleon polarisabilities. As a concrete example, we examine the results of leading order Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory for the four leading spin independent iso-scalar polarisabilities of the nucleon. Finally, we consider the possible r{\^o}le of energy dependent effects in low energy extractions of the iso-scalar dipole polarisabilities from Compton scattering on the deuteron.Comment: 17 pages LaTeX2e with 2 figures, using includegraphicx (5 .eps files). Minor corrections, references updated. Contents identical to version to appear in Phys. Rev. C 65, spelling differen

The reaction γp→π∘γ′p\gamma p \to \pi^\circ \gamma^\prime p and the magnetic dipole moment of the Δ+(1232)\Delta^+(1232) resonance

The reaction $\gamma p \to \pi^\circ \gamma^\prime p$ has been measured with the TAPS calorimeter at the Mainz Microtron accelerator facility MAMI for energies between $\sqrt{s}$ = 1221--1331 MeV. Cross sections differential in angle and energy have been determined for all particles in the final state in three bins of the excitation energy. This reaction channel provides access to the magnetic dipole moment of the $\Delta^{+}(1232)$ resonance and, for the first time, a value of $\mu_{\Delta^+} = (2.7_{-1.3}^{+1.0}(stat.) \pm 1.5 (syst.) \pm 3(theo.)) \mu_N$ has been extracted

Photoproduction of eta-mesic 3He

The photoproduction of eta-mesic 3He has been investigated using the TAPS calorimeter at the Mainz Microtron accelerator facility MAMI. The total inclusive cross section for the reaction gamma+3He->eta+X has been measured for photon energies from threshold to 820 MeV. The total and angular differential coherent eta cross sections have been extracted up to energies of 745 MeV. A resonance-like structure just above the eta production threshold with an isotropic angular distribution suggests the existence of a resonant quasi-bound state. This is supported by studies of a competing decay channel of such a quasi-bound eta-mesic nucleus into pi^0+p+X. A binding energy of (-4.4+-4.2) MeV and a width of (25.6+-6.1) MeV is deduced for the quasi-bound eta-mesic state in 3He.Comment: v1: 4 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PRL; v2: minor revisions and corrections, new figure added, 4 pages, 5 figs; v3: minor change

A measurement of the differential cross section for the two-body photodisintegration of 3He at theta_LAB = 90deg using tagged photons in the energy range 14 -- 31 MeV

The two-body photodisintegration of 3He has been investigated using tagged photons with energies from 14 -- 31 MeV at MAX-lab in Lund, Sweden. The two-body breakup channel was unambiguously identified by the (nonsimultaneous) detection of both protons and deuterons. This approach was made feasible by the over-determined kinematic situation afforded by the tagged-photon technique. Proton- and deuteron-energy spectra were measured using four silicon surface-barrier detector telescopes located at a laboratory angle of 90deg with respect to the incident photon-beam direction. Average statistical and systematic uncertainties of 5.7% and 6.6% in the differential cross section were obtained for 11 photon-energy bins with an average width of 1.2 MeV. The results are compared to previous experimental data measured at comparable photon energies as well as to the results of two recent Faddeev calculations which employ realistic potential models and take into account three-nucleon forces and final-state interactions. Both the accuracy and precision of the present data are improved over the previous measurements. The data are in good agreement with most of the previous results, and favor the inclusion of three-nucleon forces in the calculations.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures; further Referee comments addresse

In-medium modifications of the ππ\pi\pi interaction in photon-induced reactions

Differential cross sections of the reactions $(\gamma,\pi^\circ\pi^\circ)$ and $(\gamma,\pi^\circ\pi^++\pi^\circ\pi^-)$ have been measured for several nuclei ($^1$H,$^{12}$C, and $^{\rm nat}$Pb) at an incident-photon energy of $E_{\gamma}$=400-460 MeV at the tagged-photon facility at MAMI-B using the TAPS spectrometer. A significant nuclear-mass dependence of the $\pi\pi$ invariant-mass distribution is found in the $\pi^\circ\pi^\circ$ channel. This dependence is not observed in the $\pi^\circ\pi^{+/-}$ channel and is consistent with an in-medium modification of the $\pi\pi$ interaction in the $I$=$J$=0 channel. The data are compared to $\pi$-induced measurements and to calculations within a chiral-unitary approach

Double π0\pi^0 Photoproduction off the Proton at Threshold

The reaction $\gamma p \to \pi^0 \pi^0 p$ has been measured using the TAPS BaF$_2$ calorimeter at the tagged photon facility of the Mainz Microtron accelerator. Chiral perturbation theory (ChPT) predicts that close to threshold this channel is significantly enhanced compared to double pion final states with charged pions. In contrast to other reaction channels, the lower order tree terms are strongly suppressed in 2$\pi^0$ photoproduction. The consequence is the dominance of pion loops in the 2$\pi^0$ channel close to threshold - a result that opens new prospects for the test of ChPT and in particular its inherent loop terms. The present measurement is the first which is sensitive enough for a conclusive comparison with the ChPT calculation and is in agreement with its prediction. The data also show good agreement with a calculation in the unitary chiral approach.Comment: Submitted to PL

Nucleon Spin-Polarisabilities from Polarisation Observables in Low-Energy Deuteron Compton Scattering

We investigate the dependence of polarisation observables in elastic deuteron Compton scattering below the pion production threshold on the spin-independent and spin-dependent iso-scalar dipole polarisabilities of the nucleon. The calculation uses Chiral Effective Field Theory with dynamical Delta(1232) degrees of freedom in the Small Scale Expansion at next-to-leading order. Resummation of the NN intermediate rescattering states and including the Delta induces sizeable effects. The analysis considers cross-sections and the analysing power of linearly polarised photons on an unpolarised target, and cross-section differences and asymmetries of linearly and circularly polarised beams on a vector-polarised deuteron. An intuitive argument helps one to identify kinematics in which one or several polarisabilities do not contribute. Some double-polarised observables are only sensitive to linear combinations of two of the spin-polarisabilities, simplifying a multipole-analysis of the data. Spin-polarisabilities can be extracted at photon energies \gtrsim 100 MeV, after measurements at lower energies of \lesssim 70 MeV provide high-accuracy determinations of the spin-independent ones. An interactive Mathematica 7.0 notebook of our findings is available from [email protected]: 30 pages LaTeX2e, including 22 figures as 66 .eps file embedded with includegraphicx; three errors in initial submission corrected. This submission includes ot the erratum to be published in EPJA (2012) and the corrections in the tex

Neutron skin of 208^{208}Pb from Coherent Pion Photoproduction

Information on the size and shape of the neutron skin on $^{208}$Pb has been extracted from coherent pion photoproduction cross sections measured using the Crystal Ball together with the Glasgow tagger at the MAMI electron beam facility. On exploitation of an interpolated fit of a theoretical model to the measured cross sections the half-height radius and diffuseness of the neutron distribution are found to be 6.70$\pm 0.03(stat)$ fm and 0.55$\pm 0.01(stat)$$^{+0.02}_{-0.03}(sys)$ fm respectively, corresponding to a neutron skin thickness $\Delta r_{np}$=0.15$\pm 0.03(stat)$$^{+0.01}_{-0.03}(sys)$ fm. The results give the first successful extraction of a neutron skin with an electromagnetic probe and indicate the skin of $^{208}$Pb has a halo character. The measurement provides valuable new constraints on both the structure of nuclei and the equation of state for neutron-rich matter.Comment: 4 figures 5 pages. Version submitted to journal. Includes additional studies of systematic effects in the extracted diffuseness, which led to a small increase in the quoted systematic error. These additional studies are discussed in the revised manuscript. Also includes minor editorial improvements to the tex