2,275 research outputs found
Hard Two-Photon Contribution to Elastic Lepton-Proton Scattering: Determined by the OLYMPUS Experiment
The OLYMPUS collaboration reports on a precision measurement of the
positron-proton to electron-proton elastic cross section ratio, ,
a direct measure of the contribution of hard two-photon exchange to the elastic
cross section. In the OLYMPUS measurement, 2.01~GeV electron and positron beams
were directed through a hydrogen gas target internal to the DORIS storage ring
at DESY. A toroidal magnetic spectrometer instrumented with drift chambers and
time-of-flight scintillators detected elastically scattered leptons in
coincidence with recoiling protons over a scattering angle range of to . The relative luminosity between the two beam species
was monitored using tracking telescopes of interleaved GEM and MWPC detectors
at , as well as symmetric M{\o}ller/Bhabha calorimeters at
. A total integrated luminosity of 4.5~fb was collected. In
the extraction of , radiative effects were taken into account
using a Monte Carlo generator to simulate the convolutions of internal
bremsstrahlung with experiment-specific conditions such as detector acceptance
and reconstruction efficiency. The resulting values of , presented
here for a wide range of virtual photon polarization ,
are smaller than some hadronic two-photon exchange calculations predict, but
are in reasonable agreement with a subtracted dispersion model and a
phenomenological fit to the form factor data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, 2 table
The Q^2-Dependence of Nuclear Transparency for Exclusive Production
Exclusive coherent and incoherent electroproduction of the meson
from H and N targets has been studied at the HERMES experiment as a
function of coherence length (), corresponding to the lifetime of hadronic
fluctuations of the virtual photon, and squared four-momentum of the virtual
photon (). The ratio of N to H cross sections per nucleon,
known as nuclear transparency, was found to increase (decrease) with increasing
coherence length for coherent (incoherent) electroproduction. For
fixed coherence length, a rise of nuclear transparency with is observed
for both coherent and incoherent production, which is in agreement
with theoretical calculations of color transparency.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
Single-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering on a transversely polarized hydrogen target
Single-spin asymmetries for semi-inclusive electroproduction of charged pions
in deep-inelastic scattering of positrons are measured for the first time with
transverse target polarization. The asymmetry depends on the azimuthal angles
of both the pion () and the target spin axis () about the virtual
photon direction and relative to the lepton scattering plane. The extracted
Fourier component \cmpi is a signal of the previously unmeasured quark
transversity distribution, in conjunction with the so-called Collins
fragmentation function, also unknown. The Fourier component \smpi of the
asymmetry arises from a correlation between the transverse polarization of the
target nucleon and the intrinsic transverse momentum of quarks, as represented
by the previously unmeasured Sivers distribution function. Evidence for both
signals is observed, but the Sivers asymmetry may be affected by exclusive
vector meson productio
Bose-Einstein correlations in hadron-pairs from lepto-production on nuclei ranging from hydrogen to xenon
Bose-Einstein correlations of like-sign charged hadrons produced in
deep-inelastic electron and positron scattering are studied in the HERMES
experiment using nuclear targets of H, H, He, He, N, Ne, Kr,
and Xe. A Gaussian approach is used to parametrize a two-particle correlation
function determined from events with at least two charged hadrons of the same
sign charge. This correlation function is compared to two different empirical
distributions that do not include the Bose-Einstein correlations. One
distribution is derived from unlike-sign hadron pairs, and the second is
derived from mixing like-sign pairs from different events. The extraction
procedure used simulations incorporating the experimental setup in order to
correct the results for spectrometer acceptance effects, and was tested using
the distribution of unlike-sign hadron pairs. Clear signals of Bose-Einstein
correlations for all target nuclei without a significant variation with the
nuclear target mass are found. Also, no evidence for a dependence on the
invariant mass W of the photon-nucleon system is found when the results are
compared to those of previous experiments
Flavor decomposition of the sea quark helicity distributions in the nucleon from semi-inclusive deep-inelastic scattering
Double-spin asymmetries of semi-inclusive cross sections for the production
of identified pions and kaons have been measured in deep-inelastic scattering
of polarized positrons on a polarized deuterium target. Five helicity
distributions including those for three sea quark flavors were extracted from
these data together with re-analyzed previous data for identified pions from a
hydrogen target. These distributions are consistent with zero for all three sea
flavors. A recently predicted flavor asymmetry in the polarization of the light
quark sea appears to be disfavored by the data.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figure
Nuclear Polarization of Molecular Hydrogen Recombined on a Non-metallic Surface
The nuclear polarization of molecules formed by recombination
of nuclear polarized H atoms on the surface of a storage cell initially coated
with a silicon-based polymer has been measured by using the longitudinal
double-spin asymmetry in deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering. The
molecules are found to have a substantial nuclear polarization, which is
evidence that initially polarized atoms retain their nuclear polarization when
absorbed on this type of surfac
Beam-Induced Nuclear Depolarisation in a Gaseous Polarised Hydrogen Target
Spin-polarised atomic hydrogen is used as a gaseous polarised proton target
in high energy and nuclear physics experiments operating with internal beams in
storage rings. When such beams are intense and bunched, this type of target can
be depolarised by a resonant interaction with the transient magnetic field
generated by the beam bunches. This effect has been studied with the HERA
positron beam in the HERMES experiment at DESY. Resonances have been observed
and a simple analytic model has been used to explain their shape and position.
Operating conditions for the experiment have been found where there is no
significant target depolarisation due to this effect.Comment: REVTEX, 6 pages, 5 figure
Double hadron leptoproduction in the nuclear medium
First measurement of double-hadron production in deep-inelastic scattering
has been measured with the HERMES spectrometer at HERA using a 27.6 GeV
positron beam with deuterium, nitrogen, krypton and xenon targets. The
influence of the nuclear medium on the ratio of double-hadron to single-hadron
yields has been investigated. Nuclear effects are clearly observed but with
substantially smaller magnitude and reduced -dependence compared to
previously measured single-hadron multiplicity ratios. The data are in fair
agreement with models based on partonic or pre-hadronic energy loss, while they
seem to rule out a pure absorptive treatment of the final state interactions.
Thus, the double-hadron ratio provides an additional tool for studying
modifications of hadronization in nuclear matter
First Measurement of the Tensor Structure Function of the Deuteron
The \Hermes experiment has investigated the tensor spin structure of the
deuteron using the 27.6 GeV/c positron beam of \Hera. The use of a tensor
polarized deuteron gas target with only a negligible residual vector
polarization enabled the first measurement of the tensor asymmetry \At and
the tensor structure function \bd for average values of the Bj{\o}rken
variable and of the squared four-momentum transfer . The quantities \At and \bd are found to be
non-zero. The rise of \bd for decreasing values of can be interpreted to
originate from the same mechanism that leads to nuclear shadowing in
unpolarized scattering
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