Pion and Kaon Polarizabilities and Radiative Transitions

CERN COMPASS plans measurements of gamma-pi and gamma-K interactions using 50-280 GeV pion (kaon) beams and a virtual photon target. Pion (kaon) polarizabilities and radiative transitions will be measured via Primakoff effect reactions such as pi+gamma->pi'+gamma and pi+gamma->meson. The former can test a precise prediction of chiral symmetry; the latter for pi+gamma->a1(1260) is important for understanding the polarizability. The radiative transition of a pion to a low mass two-pion system, pi+gamma->pi+pi0, can also be studied to measure the chiral anomaly amplitude F(3pi) (characterizing gamma->3pi), arising from the effective Chiral Lagrangian. We review here the motivation for the above physics program. We describe the beam, target, detector, and trigger requirements for these experiments. We also describe FNAL SELEX attempts to study related physics via the interaction of 600 GeV pions with target electrons. Data analysis in progress aims to identify the reactions pi+e->pi'+e'+pi0 related to the chiral anomaly, and pi+e->pi'+e'+gamma related to pion polarizabilities.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, Latex Springer-Verlag style Tel Aviv U. Preprint TAUP-2469-97, Contribution to the Workshop on Chiral Dynamics Theory and Experiment, U. of Mainz, Sept. 1-5, 1997, to be published in Springer-Verlag, Eds. A. Bernstein, Th. Walcher, 199

Hypernuclei as chiral solitons

The identification of flavored multiskyrmions with the ground states of known hypernuclei is successful for several of them, e.g. for isodoublet H(Lambda) - He(Lambda), A=4, isoscalars He(Lambda) (A=5) and Li(Lambda) (A=7). In other cases agreement is not so good, but the behaviour of the binding energy with increasing baryon number is in qualitative agreement with data. Charmed or beauty hypernuclei within this approach are predicted to be bound stronger than strange hypernuclei. This conclusion is stable against variation of poorly known heavy flavor decay constants.Comment: 9 pages, 1 Fig. Presented at the International Workshops on Nuclear and Particle Physics at 50-Gev PS, NP01 (KEK, Japan, December 2001) and NP02 (Kyoto, Japan, September 2002). Some additions and corrections of numerical results are mad

The effects of the small t properties of hadronic scattering amplitude on the determination its real part

Taking into account the different forms of the Coulomb-hadron interference phase and the possible spin-flip contribution the new analysis of the experimental data of the proton-antiproton elastic scattering at $3.8 < p_L <6.0 \$GeV/c and small momentum transfer is carried out. It is shown that the size of the spin-flip amplitude can be determined from the form of the differential cross sections at small $t$, and the deviation of $\rho(s,t)$ obtained from the examined experimental data of the $p\bar{p}$ scattering from the analysis \cite{Kroll}, based on the dispersion relations, is conserved in all xamined assumptions. The analysis of the proton-proton elastic scattering at $9 < p_L < 70 \$GeV/c also shows the impact of the examined effects on the form of the differential cross sections.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure

Pion and Sigma Polarizabilities and Radiative Transitions

Fermilab E781 plans measurements of gamma-Sigma and $\gamma$-pion interactions using a 600 GeV beam of Sigmas and pions, and a virtual photon target. Pion polarizabilities and radiative transitions will be measured in this experiment. The former can test a precise prediction of chiral symmetry; the latter for a_1(1260) ----> pi + gamma is important for understanding the polarizability. The experiment also measures polarizabilities and radiative transitions for Sigma hyperons. The polarizabilities can test predictions of baryon chiral perturbation theory. The radiative transitions to the Sigma*(1385) provide a measure of the magnetic moment of the s-quark. Previous experimental and theoretical results for gamma-pi and gamma-Sigma interactions are given. The E781 experiment is described.Comment: 13 pages text (tex), Tel Aviv U. Preprint TAUP 2204-94, uses Springer-Verlag TEX macro package lecproc.cmm (appended at end of tex file, following \byebye), which requires extracting lecproc.cmm and putting this file in your directory in addition to the tex file (mmcd.tex) before tex processing. lecproc.cmm should be used following instructions and guidelines available from Springer-Verlag. Submitted to the Proceedings of Workshop on Chiral Dynamics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, July 1994, Eds. A. Bernstein, B. Holstein. Replaced Oct. 4 to add TAUP preprint number. Replaced Oct. 12 to correct Pb target thickness from 1.3% interaction to 0.3

Determination of the muon charge sign with the dipolar spectrometers of the OPERA experiment

The OPERA long-baseline neutrino-oscillation experiment has observed the direct appearance of $\nu_\tau$ in the CNGS $\nu_\mu$ beam. Two large muon magnetic spectrometers are used to identify muons produced in the $\tau$ leptonic decay and in $\nu_\mu^{CC}$ interactions by measuring their charge and momentum. Besides the kinematic analysis of the $\tau$ decays, background resulting from the decay of charmed particles produced in $\nu_\mu^{CC}$ interactions is reduced by efficiently identifying the muon track. A new method for the charge sign determination has been applied, via a weighted angular matching of the straight track-segments reconstructed in the different parts of the dipole magnets. Results obtained for Monte Carlo and real data are presented. Comparison with a method where no matching is used shows a significant reduction of up to 40\% of the fraction of wrongly determined charges.Comment: 10 pages. Improvements in the tex

Procedure for short-lived particle detection in the OPERA experiment and its application to charm decays

The OPERA experiment, designed to perform the first observation of $\nu_\mu \rightarrow \nu_\tau$ oscillations in appearance mode through the detection of the $\tau$ leptons produced in $\nu_\tau$ charged current interactions, has collected data from 2008 to 2012. In the present paper, the procedure developed to detect $\tau$ particle decays, occurring over distances of the order of 1 mm from the neutrino interaction point, is described in detail. The results of its application to the search for charmed hadrons are then presented as a validation of the methods for $\nu_\tau$ appearance detection

Completely automated measurement facility (PAVICOM) for track-detector data processing

Abstract A review of technical capabilities and investigations performed using the completely automated measuring facility (PAVICOM) is presented. This very efficient facility for track-detector data processing in the field of nuclear and highenergy particle physics has been constructed in the Lebedev physical institute. PAVICOM is widely used in Russia for treatment of experimental data from track detectors (emulsion and solid-state trackers) in high-and low-energy physics, cosmic ray physics, etc. PAVICOM provides an essential improvement of the efficiency of experimental studies. In contrast to semi-automated microscopes widely used until now, PAVICOM is capable of performing completely automated measurements of charged particle tracks in nuclear emulsions and track detectors without employing hard visual work. In this case, track images are recorded by CCD cameras and then are digitized and converted into files. Thus, experimental data processing is accelerated by approximately a thousand times. Completely automated facilities similar to PAVICOM came into operation in scientific centers of Japan, Italy, some other countries, and in CERN. In Russia, PAVICOM is the only facility of such a type. Its capabilities are so wide that it serves not only the needs of investigations being performed at the LPI but is also used by other Russian laboratories and institutes. Thus, PAVICOM actually plays the role of a multipurpose user center. r 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V

Limits on muon-neutrino to tau-neutrino oscillations induced by a sterile neutrino state obtained by OPERA at the CNGS beam

The OPERA experiment, exposed to the CERN to Gran Sasso $\nu_\mu$ beam, collected data from 2008 to 2012. Four oscillated $\nu_\tau$ Charged Current interaction candidates have been detected in appearance mode, which are consistent with $\nu_\mu \to \nu_\tau$ oscillations at the atmospheric $\Delta m^2$ within the "standard" three-neutrino framework. In this paper, the OPERA $\nu_\tau$ appearance results are used to derive limits on the mixing parameters of a massive sterile neutrino.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures; reference to Planck result updated in the Introduction. Submitted to JHE

Long term time variability of cosmic rays and possible relevance to the development of life on Earth

An analysis is made of the manner in which the cosmic ray intensity at Earth has varied over its existence and its possible relevance to both the origin and the evolution of life. Much of the analysis relates to the 'high energy' cosmic rays ($E>10^{14}eV;=0.1PeV$) and their variability due to the changing proximity of the solar system to supernova remnants which are generally believed to be responsible for most cosmic rays up to PeV energies. It is pointed out that, on a statistical basis, there will have been considerable variations in the likely 100 My between the Earth's biosphere reaching reasonable stability and the onset of very elementary life. Interestingly, there is the increasingly strong possibility that PeV cosmic rays are responsible for the initiation of terrestrial lightning strokes and the possibility arises of considerable increases in the frequency of lightnings and thereby the formation of some of the complex molecules which are the 'building blocks of life'. Attention is also given to the well known generation of the oxides of nitrogen by lightning strokes which are poisonous to animal life but helpful to plant growth; here, too, the violent swings of cosmic ray intensities may have had relevance to evolutionary changes. A particular variant of the cosmic ray acceleration model, put forward by us, predicts an increase in lightning rate in the past and this has been sought in Korean historical records. Finally, the time dependence of the overall cosmic ray intensity, which manifests itself mainly at sub-10 GeV energies, has been examined. The relevance of cosmic rays to the 'global electrical circuit' points to the importance of this concept.Comment: 18 pages, 5 figures, accepted by 'Surveys in Geophysics