Proton Zemach radius from measurements of the hyperfine splitting of hydrogen and muonic hydrogen

While measurements of the hyperfine structure of hydrogen-like atoms are traditionally regarded as test of bound-state QED, we assume that theoretical QED predictions are accurate and discuss the information about the electromagnetic structure of protons that could be extracted from the experimental values of the ground state hyperfine splitting in hydrogen and muonic hydrogen. Using recent theoretical results on the proton polarizability effects and the experimental hydrogen hyperfine splitting we obtain for the Zemach radius of the proton the value 1.040(16) fm. We compare it to the various theoretical estimates the uncertainty of which is shown to be larger that 0.016 fm. This point of view gives quite convincing arguments in support of projects to measure the hyperfine splitting of muonic hydrogen.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev.

The {\eta}'-carbon potential at low meson momenta

The production of $\eta^\prime$ mesons in coincidence with forward-going protons has been studied in photon-induced reactions on $^{12}$C and on a liquid hydrogen (LH$_2$) target for incoming photon energies of 1.3-2.6 GeV at the electron accelerator ELSA. The $\eta^\prime$ mesons have been identified via the $\eta^\prime\rightarrow \pi^0 \pi^0\eta \rightarrow 6 \gamma$ decay registered with the CBELSA/TAPS detector system. Coincident protons have been identified in the MiniTAPS BaF$_2$ array at polar angles of $2^{\circ} \le \theta _{p} \le 11^{\circ}$. Under these kinematic constraints the $\eta^\prime$ mesons are produced with relatively low kinetic energy ($\approx$ 150 MeV) since the coincident protons take over most of the momentum of the incident-photon beam. For the C-target this allows the determination of the real part of the $\eta^\prime$-carbon potential at low meson momenta by comparing with collision model calculations of the $\eta^\prime$ kinetic energy distribution and excitation function. Fitting the latter data for $\eta^\prime$ mesons going backwards in the center-of-mass system yields a potential depth of V = $-$(44 $\pm$ 16(stat)$\pm$15(syst)) MeV, consistent with earlier determinations of the potential depth in inclusive measurements for average $\eta^\prime$ momenta of $\approx$ 1.1 GeV/$c$. Within the experimental uncertainties, there is no indication of a momentum dependence of the $\eta^\prime$-carbon potential. The LH$_2$ data, taken as a reference to check the data analysis and the model calculations, provide differential and integral cross sections in good agreement with previous results for $\eta^\prime$ photoproduction off the free proton.Comment: 9 pages, 13 figures. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1608.0607

Photoproduction of eta mesons from the neutron: cross sections and double polarization observable E

Photoproduction of $\eta$ mesons from neutrons} \abstract{Results from measurements of the photoproduction of $\eta$ mesons from quasifree protons and neutrons are summarized. The experiments were performed with the CBELSA/TAPS detector at the electron accelerator ELSA in Bonn using the $\eta\to3\pi^{0}\to6\gamma$ decay. A liquid deuterium target was used for the measurement of total cross sections and angular distributions. The results confirm earlier measurements from Bonn and the MAMI facility in Mainz about the existence of a narrow structure in the excitation function of $\gamma n\rightarrow n\eta$. The current angular distributions show a forward-backward asymmetry, which was previously not seen, but was predicted by model calculations including an additional narrow $P_{11}$ state. Furthermore, data obtained with a longitudinally polarized, deuterated butanol target and a circularly polarized photon beam were analyzed to determine the double polarization observable $E$. Both data sets together were also used to extract the helicity dependent cross sections $\sigma_{1/2}$ and $\sigma_{3/2}$. The narrow structure in the excitation function of $\gamma n\rightarrow n\eta$ appears associated with the helicity-1/2 component of the reaction

Quasi-free photoproduction of η-mesons off 3He nuclei

Quasi-free photoproduction of η-mesons has been measured off nucleons bound in 3He nuclei for incident photon energies from the threshold region up to 1.4 GeV. The experiment was performed at the tagged photon facility of the Mainz MAMI accelerator with an almost 4π covering electromagnetic calorimeter, combining the TAPS and Crystal Ball detectors. The η-mesons were detected in coincidence with the recoil nucleons. This allowed a comparison of the production cross section off quasi-free protons and quasi-free neutrons and a full kinematic reconstruction of the final state, eliminating effects from nuclear Fermi motion. In the S11(1535) resonance peak, the data agree with the neutron/proton cross section ratio extracted from measurements with deuteron targets. More importantly, the prominent structure observed in photoproduction off quasi-free neutrons bound in the deuteron is also clearly observed. Its parameters (width, strength) are consistent with the expectations from the deuteron results. On an absolute scale the cross sections for both quasi-free protons and neutrons are suppressed with respect to the deuteron target pointing to significant nuclear final-state interaction effects

Photoproduction of π0\pi^0-pairs off protons and off neutrons

Total cross sections, angular distributions, and invariant-mass distributions have been measured for the photoproduction of $\pi^0\pi^0$ pairs off free protons and off nucleons bound in the deuteron. The experiments were performed at the MAMI accelerator facility in Mainz using the Glasgow photon tagging spectrometer and the Crystal Ball/TAPS detector. The accelerator delivered electron beams of 1508 and 1557~MeV, which produced bremsstrahlung in thin radiator foils. The tagged photon beam covered energies up to 1400~MeV. The data from the free proton target are in good agreement with previous measurements and were only used to test the analysis procedures. The results for differential cross sections (angular distributions and invariant-mass distributions) for free and quasi-free protons are almost identical in shape, but differ in absolute magnitude up to 15\%. Thus, moderate final-state interaction effects are present. The data for quasi-free neutrons are similar to the proton data in the second resonance region (final state invariant masses up to $\approx$1550~MeV), where both reactions are dominated by the $N(1520)3/2^-\rightarrow \Delta(1232)3/2^+\pi$ decay. At higher energies, angular and invariant-mass distributions are different. A simple analysis of the shapes of the invariant-mass distributions in the third resonance region is consistent with strong contributions of an $N^{\star}\rightarrow N\sigma$ decay for the proton, while the reaction is dominated by a sequential decay via a $\Delta\pi$ intermediate state for the neutron. The data are compared to predictions from the Two-Pion-MAID model and the Bonn-Gatchina coupled channel analysis.Comment: accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.

The isospin structure of photoproduction of pi-eta pairs from the nucleon in the threshold region

Photoproduction of $\pi\eta$-pairs from nucleons has been investigated from threshold up to incident photon energies of $\approx$~1.4~GeV. The quasi-free reactions $\gamma p\rightarrow p\pi^0\eta$, $\gamma n\rightarrow n\pi^0\eta$, $\gamma p\rightarrow n\pi^+\eta$, and $\gamma n\rightarrow p\pi^-\eta$ were for the first time measured from nucleons bound in the deuteron. The corresponding reactions from a free-proton target were also studied to investigate final-state interaction effects (for neutral pions the free-proton results could be compared to previous measurements; the $\gamma p\rightarrow n\pi^+\eta$ reaction was measured for the first time). For the $\pi^0\eta$ final state coherent production via the $\gamma d\rightarrow d\pi^0\eta$ reaction was also investigated. The experiments were performed at the tagged photon beam of the Mainz MAMI accelerator using an almost $4\pi$ coverage electromagnetic calorimeter composed of the Crystal Ball and TAPS detectors. The total cross sections for the four different final states obey the relation $\sigma(p\pi^0\eta)$ $\approx$ $\sigma(n\pi^0\eta)$ $\approx$ $2\sigma(p\pi^-\eta)$ $\approx$ $2\sigma(n\pi^+\eta)$ as expected for a dominant contribution from a $\Delta^{\star}\rightarrow\eta\Delta(1232)\rightarrow\pi\eta N$ reaction chain, which is also supported by the shapes of the invariant-mass distributions of nucleon-meson and $\pi$-$\eta$ pairs. The experimental results are compared to the predictions from an isobar reaction model.Comment: accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

Measurement of the beam-helicity asymmetry I⊙I^{\odot} in the photoproduction of π0π±\pi^0\pi^{\pm}-pairs off protons and off neutrons

Beam-helicity asymmetries have been measured at the MAMI accelerator in Mainz for the photoproduction of mixed-charge pion pairs in the reactions $\boldsymbol{\gamma}p\rightarrow n\pi^0\pi^+$ off free protons and $\boldsymbol{\gamma}d\rightarrow (p)p\pi^0\pi^-$ and $\boldsymbol{\gamma}d\rightarrow (n)n\pi^0\pi^+$ off quasi-free nucleons bound in the deuteron for incident photon energies up to 1.4 GeV. Circularly polarized photons were produced from bremsstrahlung of longitudinally polarized electrons and tagged with the Glasgow-Mainz magnetic spectrometer. The charged pions, recoil protons, recoil neutrons, and decay photons from $\pi^0$ mesons were detected in the 4$\pi$ electromagnetic calorimeter composed of the Crystal Ball and TAPS detectors. Using a complete kinematic reconstruction of the final state, excellent agreement was found between the results for free and quasi-free protons, suggesting that the quasi-free neutron results are also a close approximation of the free-neutron asymmetries. A comparison of the results to the predictions of the Two-Pion-MAID reaction model shows that the reaction mechanisms are still not well understood, in particular at low incident photon energies in the second nucleon-resonance region.Comment: accepted for publication in Eur. phys. J.

Photoproduction of π0-pairs off protons and off neutrons

Total cross sections, angular distributions, and invariant-mass distributions have been measured for the photoproduction of π0π0 pairs off free protons and off nucleons bound in the deuteron. The experiments were performed at the MAMI accelerator facility in Mainz using the Glasgow photon tagging spectrometer and the Crystal Ball/TAPS detector. The accelerator delivered electron beams of 1508 and 1557MeV, which produced bremsstrahlung in thin radiator foils. The tagged photon beam covered energies up to 1400MeV. The data from the free proton target are in good agreement with previous measurements and were only used to test the analysis procedures. The results for differential cross sections (angular distributions and invariant-mass distributions) for free and quasi-free protons are almost identical in shape, but differ in absolute magnitude up to 15%. Thus, moderate final-state interaction effects are present. The data for quasi-free neutrons are similar to the proton data in the second resonance region (final-state invariant masses up to ≈1550 MeV), where both reactions are dominated by the N(1520)3/2−→Δ(1232)3/2+π decay. At higher energies, angular and invariant-mass distributions are different. A simple analysis of the shapes of the invariant-mass distributions in the third resonance region is consistent with strong contributions of an N⋆→Nσ decay for the proton, while the reaction is dominated by a sequential decay via a Δπ intermediate state for the neutron. The data are compared to predictions from the Two-Pion-MAID model and the Bonn-Gatchina coupled-channel analysis