Pion photoproduction off the proton in a gauge-invariant chiral unitary framework

We investigate pion photoproduction off the proton in a manifestly gauge-invariant chiral unitary extension of chiral perturbation theory. In a first step, we consider meson-baryon scattering taking into account all next-to-leading order contact interactions. The resulting low-energy constants are determined by a fit to s-wave pion-nucleon scattering and the low-energy data for the reaction pi- p --> eta n. To assess the theoretical uncertainty, we perform two different fit strategies. Having determined the low-energy constants, we then analyse the data on the s-wave multipole amplitudes E0+ of pion and eta photoproduction. These are parameter-free predictions, as the two new low-energy constants are determined by the neutron and proton magnetic moments.Comment: 23 pages, 17 figure

Pion photoproduction on nucleons in a covariant hadron-exchange model

We present a relativistic dynamical model of pion photoproduction on the nucleon in the resonance region. It offers several advances over the existing approaches. The model is obtained by extending our $\pi N$-scattering description to the electromagnetic channels. The resulting photopion amplitude is thus unitary in the $\pi N$, \ga N channel space, Watson's theorem is exactly satisfied. At this stage we have included the pion, nucleon, \De(1232)-resonance degrees of freedom. The $\rho$ and $\omega$ meson exchanges are also included, but play a minor role in the considered energy domain (up to $\sqrt{s}=1.5$ GeV). In this energy range the model provides a good description of all the important multipoles. We have allowed for only two free parameters -- the photocouplings of the $\Delta$-resonance. These couplings are adjusted to reproduce the strength of corresponding resonant-multipoles $M_{1+}$ and $E_{1+}$ at the resonance position.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figs, version to appear in Phys. Rev. C 70 (2004

Measurement and comparison of individual external doses of high-school students living in Japan, France, Poland and Belarus -- the "D-shuttle" project --

Twelve high schools in Japan (of which six are in Fukushima Prefecture), four in France, eight in Poland and two in Belarus cooperated in the measurement and comparison of individual external doses in 2014. In total 216 high-school students and teachers participated in the study. Each participant wore an electronic personal dosimeter "D-shuttle" for two weeks, and kept a journal of his/her whereabouts and activities. The distributions of annual external doses estimated for each region overlap with each other, demonstrating that the personal external individual doses in locations where residence is currently allowed in Fukushima Prefecture and in Belarus are well within the range of estimated annual doses due to the background radiation level of other regions/countries