A recoil detector for the measurement of antiproton-proton elastic scattering at angles close to 90∘^{\circ}

The design and construction of a recoil detector for the measurement of recoil protons of antiproton-proton elastic scattering at scattering angles close to 90$^{\circ}$ are described. The performance of the recoil detector has been tested in the laboratory with radioactive sources and at COSY with proton beams by measuring proton-proton elastic scattering. The results of laboratory tests and commissioning with beam are presented. Excellent energy resolution and proper working performance of the recoil detector validate the conceptual design of the KOALA experiment at HESR to provide the cross section data needed to achieve a precise luminosity determination at the PANDA experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 15 figure

Search for the 3He-eta bound state at COSY-11

We have measured excitation function for dp -> ppp_pi- reaction near the eta production threshold. We observe an enhancement of the counting rate above the threshold which can originate from the production of the eta meson in the reaction dp -> 3He eta and its subsequent absorption on neutron in the 3He nucleus leading to creation of the p_pi- pair.Comment: Presented at 10th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interaction (MESON 2008), Cracow, Poland, 6 - 10 June 2008, 4 pages, 4 figures,references adde

Isospin dependence of the eta' meson production in nucleon--nucleon collisions

According to the quark model, the masses of eta and eta' mesons should be almost equal. However, the empirical values of these masses differ by more than the factor of two. Similarly, though the almost the same quark-antiquark content, the total cross section for the creation of these mesons close to the kinematical thresholds in the pp --> ppX reaction differs significantly. Using the COSY-11 detection setup we intend to determine whether this difference will also be so significant in the case of the production of these mesons in the proton-neutron scattering. Additionally, the comparison of the pp --> pp eta' and pn --> pn eta' total cross sections will allow to learn about the production of the eta' meson in the channels of isospin I = 0 and I = 1 and to investigate aspects of the gluonium component of the eta' meson.Comment: Presented at LEAP05: International conference on Low Energy Antiproton Physics, Bonn - Juelich, Germany, May 16-22, 200

COSY-11: an experimental facility for studying meson production in free and quasi-free nucleon-nucleon collisions

The COSY-11 experimental setup is an internal facility installed at the COoler SYnchrotron COSY in Juelich. It allows to investigate meson production in free and quasi-free nucleon-nucleon collisions, eg. pp --> pp meson and pd --> p_sp np meson reactions. Drift chambers and scintillators permit to measure outgoing protons, separated in magnetic field of COSY-11 dipole. Neutrons are registered in the neutron modular detector installed downstream the beam. Recently, the experimental setup has been extended with spectator detector, deuteron drift chamber and polarization monitoring system, and since then meson production can be investigated also as a function of spin and isospin of colliding nucleons.Comment: Presented at LEAP05: International conference on Low Energy Antiproton Physics, Bonn - Juelich, Germany, May 16-22, 200

Eta and eta' mesons production at COSY-11

The low emittance and small momentum spread of the proton and deuteron beams of the Cooler Synchrotron COSY combined with the high mass resolution of the COSY-11 detection system permit to study the creation of mesons in the nucleon-nucleon interaction down to the fraction of MeV with respect to the kinematical threshold. At such small excess energies, the ejectiles possess low relative momenta and are predominantly produced with the relative angular momentum equal to zero. Taking advantage of these conditions we have performed investigations aiming to determine the mechanism of the production of eta and eta' mesons in the collision of hadrons as well as the hadronic interaction of these mesons with nucleons and nuclei. In this proceedings we address the ongoing studies of the spin and isospin dependence for the production of the eta and eta' mesons in free and quasi-free nucleon-nucleon collisions. New results on the spin observables for the vec(p)p --> pp eta reaction, combined with the previously determined total cross section isospin dependence, reveal a statistically significant indication that the excitation of the nucleon to the S11(1535) resonance, the process which intermediates the production of the eta meson in the nucleon-nucleon interactions, is predominantly due to the exchange of the pi meson between the colliding nucleons.Comment: Invited talk at MESON 2006: 9th International Workshop on Meson Production, Properties and Interactions, Cracow, Poland, 9-13 Jun 200

Search for eta-mesic 4He in the dd->3He n pi0 and dd->3He p pi- reactions with the WASA-at-COSY facility

The search for 4He-eta bound states was performed with the WASA-at-COSY facility via the measurement of the excitation function for the dd->3He n pi0 and dd->3He p pi- processes. The beam momentum was varied continuously between 2.127 GeV/c and 2.422 GeV/c, corresponding to the excess energy for the dd->4He eta reaction ranging from Q=-70 MeV to Q=30 MeV. The luminosity was determined based on the dd->3He n reaction and quasi-free proton-proton scattering via dd->pp n_spectator n_spectator reactions. The excitation functions determined independently for the measured reactions do not reveal a structure which could be interpreted as a narrow mesic nucleus. Therefore, the upper limits of the total cross sections for the bound state production and decay in dd->(4He-eta)_bound->3He n pi0 and dd->(4He-eta)_bound->3He p pi- processes were determined taking into account the isospin relation between both the channels considered. The results of the analysis depend on the assumptions of the N* momentum distribution in the anticipated mesic-4He. Assuming as in the previous works, that this is identical with the distribution of nucleons bound with 20 MeV in 4He, we determined that (for the mesic bound state width in the range from 5 MeV to 50 MeV) the upper limits at 90% confidence level are about 3 nb and about 6 nb for npi0 and ppi- channels, respectively. However, based on the recent theoretical findings of the N*(1535) momentum distribution in the N*-3He nucleus bound by 3.6 MeV, we find that the WASA-at-COSY detector acceptance decreases and hence the corresponding upper limits are 5 nb and 10 nb for npi0 and ppi- channels respectively.Comment: This article will be submitted to JHE

Correlation Femtoscopy for Studying Eta Meson Production Mechanism

The high statistics data from the pp -> ppeta reaction measurement, delivered by the COSY-11 collaboration, are now being evaluated using the correlation femtoscopy technique. This method is based on the relative momentum correlations of two emitted protons and may permit determination of the size of the reaction volume. For the very first time, we apply an intensity interferometry technique to study the mechanism of the meson production via the nucleon-nucleon interaction close to the kinematical threshold. We invented a method to determine correlation function for the ppeta system free from the physical multi-pion production background. We show the comparison of experimental results with theoretical predictions and appraise the accuracy achieved for the determination of the size of the emission source.Comment: Talk presented at Eta05: Workshop on Production and Decay of eta and eta-prime Mesons, Cracow, Poland, 15-18 Sep 200