Beam-helicity asymmetries in double-pion photoproduction off the proton

Beam-helicity asymmetries have been measured at the MAMI accelerator in Mainz in the three isospin channels γ⃗ p→π<sup>+</sup>π<sup>0</sup>n, γ⃗ p→π<sup>0</sup>π<sup>0</sup>p, and γ⃗ p→π<sup>+</sup>π<sup>−</sup>p. The circularly polarized photons, produced from bremsstrahlung of longitudinally polarized electrons, were tagged with the Glasgow magnetic spectrometer. Charged pions and the decay photons of π0 mesons were detected in a 4π electromagnetic calorimeter which combined the Crystal Ball detector with the TAPS detector. The precisely measured asymmetries are very sensitive to details of the production processes and are thus key observables in the modeling of the reaction dynamics

Heart rates and gas exchange in the Amazonian Manatee (Trichechus inunguis) in relation to diving

1. Unrestrained Amazonian manatees (Trichechus inunguis) maintained a constant heart rate during diving and exhibited a slight tachycardia during breathing. 'Forcing' the manatees to dive caused a marked bradycardia. They exhibited a more pronounced tachycardia during breathing after 'forced' dives and hyperventilated during recovery dives. 2. Manatees are capable of dives exceeding 10 min duration without having to resport to anaerobic metabolism, and even after 10 min dives recover within 3-4 short dives. The ability of manatees to make long dives, in spite of relatively poor O2 stores, is due to their low metabolic rate, while the rapid recovery is aided by their high CO2 stores which minimizes CO2 storage in the body. 3. In manatees the changes in alveolar O2 and CO2 pressure ( {Mathematical expression} and {Mathematical expression}) in relation to dive time are slower and more variable than in other marine mammals. The lower rate of change is probably due to the manatees' reduced metabolic rate, while the greater variability is due to their breathing pattern, in which both ventilation and body gas stores influence alveolar gases. © 1986 Springer-Verlag

Double pion photoproduction off nuclei - Are there effects beyond final-state interaction?

Photoproduction of pi(0)pi(0) and pi(0)pi(+/-) pairs from nuclei has been measured over a wide mass range (H-2, Li-7, C-12, Ca-40, and Pb-nat) for photon energies from threshold to 600 MeV. The experiments were performed at the MAMI accelerator in Mainz, using the Glasgow photon tagging spectrometer and a 4 pi electromagnetic calorimeter consisting of the Crystal Ball and TAPS detectors. A shift of the pion-pion invariant-mass spectra for heavy nuclei to small invariant masses has been observed for pi(0) pairs but also for the mixed-charge pairs. The precise results allow for the first time a model-independent analysis of the influence of pion final-state interactions. The corresponding effects are found to be large and must be carefully considered in the search for possible in-medium modifications of the sigma-meson. Results from a transport model calculation reproduce the shape of the invariant-mass distributions for the mixed-charge pairs better than for the neutral pairs, but also for the latter differences between model results and experiment are not large, leaving not much room for sigma-in-medium modification. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved