Experiments on the Nuclear Interactions of Pions and Electrons

This is the final technical report. Yearly Progress Reports were submitted throughout the duration of the project. Along with our publications, these reports provide a detailed record of our accomplishments. This report largely consists of a summary of the technical activities carried out during last 2-1/2 years of the project, along with a list of papers published in the period from 2002-2005. Our work during this period involved the following: 1. Electro-production of excited states of the nucleon through the analysis of exclusive single pion production reactions induced by polarized electrons incident on both polarized and unpolarized nucleon targets. (JLab) 2. Measurement of proton and deuteron spin structure functions in and above the nucleon resonance region at low and moderate $Q^2$, using inclusive electron-proton and electron deuteron scattering (JLAB). 3. Contributions to the PRIMEX experiment (JLab). 4. A precise measurement of the branching ratio for pion beta decay was carried out along with other members of the PIBETA collaboration (PSI). The first three, labeled JLab, were experiments made with the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson Laboratory in Newport News, VA. The PIBETA experiment was carried out using a low energy pion beam at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland

Bounds on heavy sterile neutrinos revisited

We revise the bounds on heavy sterile neutrinos, especially in the case of their mixing with muon neutrinos in the charged current. We summarize the present experimental limits, and we reanalyze the existing data from the accelerator neutrino experiments and from Super-Kamiokande to set new bounds on a heavy sterile neutrino in the range of masses from 8 MeV to 390 MeV. We also discuss how the future accelerator neutrino experiments can improve the present limits.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures; a detailed and expanded versio

Electroexcitation of the P33(1232), P11(1440), D13(1520), S11(1535) at Q^2=0.4 and 0.65(GeV/c)^2

Using two approaches: dispersion relations and isobar model, we have analyzed recent high precision CLAS data on cross sections of \pi^0, \pi^+, and \eta electroproduction on protons, and the longitudinally polarized electron beam asymmetry for p(\vec{e},e'p)\pi^0 and p(\vec{e},e'n)\pi^+. The contributions of the resonances P33(1232), P11(1440), D13(1520), S11(1535) to \pi electroproduction and S11(1535) to \eta electroproduction are found. The results obtained in the two approaches are in good agreement with each other. There is also good agreement between amplitudes of the \gamma^* N \to S11(1535) transition found in \pi and \eta electroproduction. For the first time accurate results are obtained for the longitudinal amplitudes of the P11(1440), D13(1520) and S11(1535) electroexcitation on protons.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figure

Experimental determination of the evolution of the Bjorken integral at low Q^2

We extract the Bjorken integral Gamma^{p-n}_1 in the range 0.17 < Q^2 < 1.10 GeV^2 from inclusive scattering of polarized electrons by polarized protons, deuterons and 3He, for the region in which the integral is dominated by nucleon resonances. These data bridge the domains of the hadronic and partonic descriptions of the nucleon. In combination with earlier measurements at higher Q^2, we extract the non-singlet twist-4 matrix element f_2.Comment: Quoted world data updated. Minor change in some results, Minor rephrasin

Differential cross sections for pion charge exchange on the proton at 27.5 MeV

We have measured pion single charge exchange differential cross sections on the proton at 27.5 MeV incident $\pi^-$ kinetic energy in the center of momentum angular range between $0^\circ$ and $55^\circ$. The extracted cross sections are compared with predictions of the standard pion-nucleon partial wave analysis and found to be in excellent agreement.Comment: ReVTeX v3.0 with aps.sty, 23 pages in e-print format, 7 PostScript Figures and 4 Tables, also available via anonymous ftp at ftp://helena.phys.virginia.edu/pub/preprints/scx.p

Precise Measurement of the Pi+ -> Pi0 e+ nu Branching Ratio

Using a large acceptance calorimeter and a stopped pion beam we have made a precise measurement of the rare Pi+ -> Pi0 e+ Nu,(pi_beta) decay branching ratio. We have evaluated the branching ratio by normalizing the number of observed pi_beta decays to the number of observed Pi+ -> e+ Nu, (pi_{e2}) decays. We find the value of Gamma(Pi+ -> Pi0 e+ Nu)/Gamma(total) = [1.036 +/- 0.004(stat.) +/- 0.004(syst.) +/- 0.003(pi_{e2})] x 10^{-8}$, where the first uncertainty is statistical, the second systematic, and the third is the pi_{e2} branching ratio uncertainty. Our result agrees well with the Standard Model prediction.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figures, 1 table, revtex4; changed content; updated analysi

Determination of the Proton Spin Structure Functions for 0.05 \u3c Q\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e \u3c5GEV\u3csup\u3e2\u3c/sup\u3e Using CLAS

We present the results of our final analysis of the full data set of gp1 Q2, the spin structure function of the proton, collected using CLAS at Jefferson Laboratory in 2000-2001. Polarized electrons with energies of 1.6, 2.5, 4.2, and 5.7 GeV were scattered from proton targets 15NH3 dynamically polarized along the beam direction) and detected with CLAS. From the measured double spin asymmetries, we extracted virtual photon asymmetries Ap1 and Ap2 and spin structure functions g p1 and gp2 over a wide kinematic range (0.05 GeV2 \u3c Q2 \u3c 5 GeV2 and 1.08 GeV\u3c W \u3c 3 GeV) and calculated moments of gp1. We compare our final results with various theoretical models and expectations, as well as with parametrizations of the world data. Our data, with their precision and dense kinematic coverage, are able to constrain fits of polarized parton distributions, test pQCD predictions for quark polarizations at large x, offer a better understanding of quark-hadron duality, and provide more precise values of higher twist matrix elements in the framework of the operator product expansion

Photoproduction of phi(1020) mesons on the proton at large momentum transfer

The cross section for $\phi$ meson photoproduction on the proton has been measured for the first time up to a four-momentum transfer -t = 4 GeV^2, using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. At low four-momentum transfer, the differential cross section is well described by Pomeron exchange. At large four-momentum transfer, above -t = 1.8 GeV^2, the data support a model where the Pomeron is resolved into its simplest component, two gluons, which may couple to any quark in the proton and in the $\phi$.Comment: 5 pages; 7 figure

A New Measurement of the π0\pi^0 Radiative Decay Width

High precision measurements of the differential cross sections for $\pi^0$ photoproduction at forward angles for two nuclei, $^{12}$C and $^{208}$Pb, have been performed for incident photon energies of 4.9 - 5.5 GeV to extract the ${\pi^0 \to \gamma\gamma}$ decay width. The experiment was done at Jefferson Lab using the Hall B photon tagger and a high-resolution multichannel calorimeter. The ${\pi^0 \to \gamma\gamma}$ decay width was extracted by fitting the measured cross sections using recently updated theoretical models for the process. The resulting value for the decay width is $\Gamma{(\pi^0 \to \gamma\gamma)} = 7.82 \pm 0.14 ~({\rm stat.}) \pm 0.17 ~({\rm syst.}) ~{\rm eV}$. With the 2.8% total uncertainty, this result is a factor of 2.5 more precise than the current PDG average of this fundamental quantity and it is consistent with current theoretical predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Measurement of the Proton and Deuteron Spin Structure Function g_1 in the Resonance Region

We have measured the proton and deuteron spin structure functions g_1^p and g_1^d in the region of the nucleon resonances for W^2 < 5 GeV^2 and $Q^2\simeq 0.5$ and $Q^2\simeq 1.2$ GeV^2 by inelastically scattering 9.7 GeV polarized electrons off polarized $^{15}NH_3$ and $^{15}ND_3$ targets. We observe significant structure in g_1^p in the resonance region. We have used the present results, together with the deep-inelastic data at higher W^2, to extract $\Gamma(Q^2)\equiv\int_0^1 g_1(x,Q^2) dx$. This is the first information on the low-Q^2 evolution of Gamma toward the Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn limit at Q^2 = 0.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure