6 research outputs found
Observation of a Coherence Length Effect in Exclusive Rho^0 Electroproduction
Exclusive incoherent electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson from 1H, 2H,
3He, and 14N targets has been studied by the HERMES experiment at squared
four-momentum transfer Q**2>0.4 GeV**2 and positron energy loss nu from 9 to 20
GeV. The ratio of the 14N to 1H cross sections per nucleon, known as the
nuclear transparency, was found to decrease with increasing coherence length of
quark-antiquark fluctuations of the virtual photon. The data provide clear
evidence of the interaction of the quark- antiquark fluctuations with the
nuclear medium.Comment: RevTeX, 5 pages, 3 figure
Determination of the Deep Inelastic Contribution to the Generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn Integral for the Proton and Neutron
The virtual photon absorption cross section differences [sigma_1/2-sigma_3/2]
for the proton and neutron have been determined from measurements of polarised
cross section asymmetries in deep inelastic scattering of 27.5 GeV
longitudinally polarised positrons from polarised 1H and 3He internal gas
targets. The data were collected in the region above the nucleon resonances in
the kinematic range nu < 23.5 GeV and 0.8 GeV**2 < Q**2 < 12 GeV**2. For the
proton the contribution to the generalised Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn integral was
found to be substantial and must be included for an accurate determination of
the full integral. Furthermore the data are consistent with a QCD
next-to-leading order fit based on previous deep inelastic scattering data.
Therefore higher twist effects do not appear significant.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figures, 1 table, revte
Measurement of Angular Distributions and R= sigma_L/sigma_T in Diffractive Electroproduction of rho^0 Mesons
Production and decay angular distributions were extracted from measurements
of exclusive electroproduction of the rho^0(770) meson over a range in the
virtual photon negative four-momentum squared 0.5< Q^2 <4 GeV^2 and the
photon-nucleon invariant mass range 3.8< W <6.5 GeV. The experiment was
performed with the HERMES spectrometer, using a longitudinally polarized
positron beam and a ^3He gas target internal to the HERA e^{+-} storage ring.
The event sample combines rho^0 mesons produced incoherently off individual
nucleons and coherently off the nucleus as a whole. The distributions in one
production angle and two angles describing the rho^0 -> pi+ pi- decay yielded
measurements of eight elements of the spin-density matrix, including one that
had not been measured before. The results are consistent with the dominance of
helicity-conserving amplitudes and natural parity exchange. The improved
precision achieved at 47 GeV,
reveals evidence for an energy dependence in the ratio R of the longitudinal to
transverse cross sections at constant Q^2.Comment: 15 pages, 15 embedded figures, LaTeX for SVJour(epj) document class
Revision: Fig. 15 corrected, recent data added to Figs. 10,12,14,15; minor
changes to tex
The HERMES spectrometer
The HERMES experiment is collecting data on inclusive and semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering of polarised positrons from polarised targets of H, D, and He. These data give information on the spin structure of the nucleon. This paper describes the forward angle spectrometer built for this purpose. The spectrometer includes numerous tracking chambers (micro-strip gas chambers, drift and proportional chambers) in front of and behind a 1.3 T.m magnetic field, as well as an extensive set of detectors for particle identification (a lead-glass calorimeter, a pre-shower detector, a transition radiation detector, and a threshold Cherenkov detector). Two of the main features of the spectrometer are its good acceptance and identification of both positrons and hadrons, in particular pions. These characteristics, together with the purity of the targets, are allowing HERMES to make unique contributions to the understanding of how the spins of the quarks contribute to the spin of the nucleon