Polarization observables in deuteron photodisintegration below 360 MeV

High precision measurements of induced and transferred recoil proton polarization in d((gamma) over right arrow, (p) over right arrow )n have been performed for photon energies of 277-357 MeV and theta(cm) = 20 degrees-120 degrees. The measurements were motivated by a longstanding discrepancy between meson-baryon model calculations and data at higher energies. At the low energies of this experiment, theory continues to fail to reproduce the data, indicating that either something is missing in the calculations and/or there is a problem with the accuracy of the nucleon-nucleon potential being used. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Nuclear dependence of the coherent eta photoproduction reaction in a relativistic approach

We study the nuclear (or A) dependence of the coherent eta photoproduction reaction in a relativistic impulse approximation approach. We use a standard relativistic parameterization of the elementary amplitude, based on a set of four Lorentz- and gauge-invariant amplitudes, to calculate the coherent production cross section from He-4, C-12, and Ca-40. In contrast to nonrelativistic treatments, our approach maintains the full relativistic structure of the process. The nuclear structure affects the process through the ground-state tensor density. This density is sensitive to relativistic effects and depends on A in a different manner than the vector density used in nonrelativistic approaches. This peculiar dependence results in He-4 having a cross section significantly smaller than that of C-12---in contrast to existent nonrelativistic calculations. Distortion effects are incorporated through an eta-nucleus optical potential that is computed in a simple ``t rho'' approximation.Comment: 4 pages, 3 postscript figures. The replace is due to a misspelling in the Authors' lis

Electroexcitation of the Δ+ (1232) at Low Momentum Transfer

We report on new p(e, e\u27 p)π°. measurements at the Δ+(1232) resonance at the low momentum transfer region, where the mesonic cloud dynamics is predicted to be dominant and rapidly changing, offering a test bed for chiral effective field theory calculations. The new data explore the Q2 dependence of the resonant quadrupole amplitudes and for the first time indicate that the Electric and the Coulomb quadrupole amplitudes converge as Q2 -\u3e 0. The measurements of the Coulomb quadrupole amplitude have been extended to the lowest momentum transfer ever reached, and suggest that more than half of its magnitude is attributed to the mesonic cloud in this region. The new data disagree with predictions of constituent quark models and are in reasonable agreement with dynamical calculations that include pion cloud effects, chiral effective field theory and lattice calculations. The measurements indicate that improvement is required to the theoretical calculations and provide valuable input that will allow their refinements

Lessons to be learned from the coherent photoproduction of pseudoscalar mesons

We study the coherent photoproduction of pseudoscalar mesons---particularly of neutral pions---placing special emphasis on the various sources that put into question earlier nonrelativistic-impulse-approximation calculations. These include: final-state interactions, relativistic effects, off-shell ambiguities, and violations to the impulse approximation. We establish that, while distortions play an essential role in the modification of the coherent cross section, the uncertainty in our results due to the various choices of optical-potential models is relatively small (of at most 30%). By far the largest uncertainty emerges from the ambiguity in extending the many on-shell-equivalent representations of the elementary amplitude off the mass shell. Indeed, relativistic impulse-approximation calculations that include the same pionic distortions, the same nuclear-structure model, and two sets of elementary amplitudes that are identical on-shell, lead to variations in the magnitude of the coherent cross section by up to factors of five. Finally, we address qualitatively the assumption of locality implicit in most impulse-approximation treatments, and suggest that the coherent reaction probes---in addition to the nuclear density---the polarization structure of the nucleus.Comment: Manuscript is 27 pages long and includes 11 eps figure

Periodicities in the high-mass X-ray binary system RXJ0146.9+6121/LSI+61 235

The high-mass X-ray binary RX J0146.9+6121, with optical counterpart LS I+61°235 (V831 Cas), is an intriguing system on the outskirts of the open cluster NGC 663. It contains the slowest Be type X-ray pulsar known with a pulse period of around 1400 s and, primarily from the study of variation in the emission line profile of Hα, it is known to have a Be decretion disc with a one-armed density wave period of approximately 1240 d. Here we present the results of an extensive photometric campaign, supplemented with optical spectroscopy, aimed at measuring short time-scale periodicities. We find three significant periodicities in the photometric data at, in order of statistical significance, 0.34, 0.67 and 0.10 d. We give arguments to support the interpretation that the 0.34 and 0.10 d periods could be due to stellar oscillations of the B-type primary star and that the 0.67 d period is the spin period of the Be star with a spin axis inclination of 23+10−8 degrees. We measured a systemic velocity of −37.0 ± 4.3 km s−1 confirming that LS I+61°235 has a high probability of membership in the young cluster NGC 663 from which the system's age can be estimated as 20–25 Myr. From archival RXTE All Sky Monitor (ASM) data we further find ‘super’ X-ray outbursts roughly every 450 d. If these super outbursts are caused by the alignment of the compact star with the one-armed decretion disc enhancement, then the orbital period is approximately 330 d

Three-Nucleon Photodisintegration of 3He

The three-nucleon photodisintegration of 3He has been calculated in the whole phase space using consistent Faddeev equations for the three-nucleon bound and scattering states. Modern nucleon-nucleon and 3N forces have been applied as well as different approaches to nuclear currents. Phase space regions are localized where 3N force effects are especially large. In addition semi-exclusive cross sections for 3He(gamma,N) have been predicted which carry interesting peak structures. Finally some data for the exclusive 3N breakup process of 3He and its total breakup cross section have been compared to theory.Comment: 28 pages, 6 png figures, 11 ps figures, modified version with changed figures, conclusions unchanged, to appear in Phys.Rev.

Measurements of the Generalized Electric and Magnetic Polarizabilities of the Proton at Low Q2 Using the VCS Reaction

The mean square polarizability radii of the proton have been measured for the first time in a virtual Compton scattering experiment performed at the MIT-Bates out-of-plane scattering facility. Response functions and polarizabilities obtained from a dispersion analysis of the data at Q2=0.06 GeV2/c2 are in agreement with O(p3) heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The data support the dominance of mesonic effects in the polarizabilities, and the increase of beta with increasing Q2 is evidence for the cancellation of long-range diamagnetism by short-range paramagnetism from the pion cloud