The detailed mechanism of the eta production in pp scattering up to the Tlab = 4.5 GeV

Contrary to very early beliefs, the experimental cross section data for the eta production in proton-proton scattering are well described if pi and only eta meson exchange diagrams are used to calculate the Born term. The inclusion of initial and final state interactions is done in the factorization approximation by using the inverse square of the Jost function. The two body Jost functions are obtained from the S matrices in the low energy effective range approximation. The danger of double counting in the p-eta final state interaction is discussed. It is shown that higher partial waves in meson-nucleon amplitudes do not contribute significantly bellow excess energy of Q=100 MeV. Known difficulties of reducing the multi resonance model to a single resonance one are illustrated.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, corrected typos in relation (3), changed content (added section with differential cross sections

A local control system for the test masses of the Virgo gravitational wave detector

The mirrors of interferometric detectors of gravitational waves (GW) are suspended in order to be isolated from external disturbances. A local control system able to keep them correctly aligned and to damp the angular modes of the suspension is necessary. In this paper we present the solution adopted for Virgo based on a CCD camera sensor and on digital controls. With this solution the mirrors are kept aligned at the level of less than 1 murad rms, enough to lock the interferometer and start the automatic alignment system. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

First locking of the Virgo central area interferometer with suspension hierarchical control

Operation of the central portion of Virgo as a simple 6 in Michelson interferometer has given the first demonstration of the possibility to control an interferometer suspended from Virgo full scale multistage seismic attenuators using information derived from the interferometer locking signal. A special role in the control is played by the first stage of these suspensions, an inverted pendulum: besides its seismic preisolation action, this stage has positioning dynamics of several mm, and it allows to exert a very low frequency control at the tipper level of the suspension using the interferometer fringe signal. The application of this feedback to the top-stage of the suspension allows corrections of drifts, such as tidal ones, at a stage of the suspension where a large dynamic range in displacements is available, without introducing noise at the level of the mirror, resulting in a significant reduction of the lock keeping force applied directly on the mirror at the lowest stage of the attenuator. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved