Photoproduction of the f₂(1270) Meson Using the CLAS Detector

The quark structure of the f2(1270) meson has, for many years, been assumed to be a pure quark-antiquark (qq⁻) resonance with quantum numbers JPC = 2++. Recently, it was proposed that the f2(1270) is a molecular state made from the attractive interaction of two mesons. Such a state would be expected to decay strongly to final states with charged pions due to the dominant decay → π+π-, whereas decay to two neutral pions would likely be suppressed. Here, we measure for the first time the reaction p -\u3e π0π0p, using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer detector at Jefferson Lab for incident beam energies between 3.6 and 5.4 GeV. Differential cross sections, dσ/dt, for f2(1270) photoproduction are extracted with good precision due to low backgrounds and are compared to theoretical calculations

Observation of Beam Spin Asymmetries in the Process ep → e\u27π⁺π⁻ X with CLAS 12

The observation of beam spin asymmetries in two-pion production in semi-inclusive deep inelastic scattering off an unpolarized proton target is reported. The data presented here were taken in the fall of 2018 with the CLAS12 spectrometer using a 10.6 GeV longitudinally spin-polarized electron beam delivered by CEBAF at JLab. The measured asymmetries provide the first opportunity to extract the parton distribution function e(x), which provides information about the interaction between gluons and quarks, in a collinear framework that offers cleaner access than previous measurements. The asymmetries also constitute the first ever signal sensitive to the helicity-dependent two-pion fragmentation function G⊥1. A clear sign change is observed around the ρ mass that appears in model calculations and is indicative of the dependence of the produced pions on the helicity of the fragmenting quark

Beam-Spin Asymmetry Σ for Σ⁻ Hyperon Photoproduction off the Neutron

We report a new measurement of the beam-spin asymmetry, Σ, for the →n → K+Σ− reaction using quasi-free neutrons in a liquid-deuterium target. The new dataset includes data at previously unmeasured photon energy and angular ranges, thereby providing new constraints on partial wave analyses used to extract properties of the excited nucleon states. The experimental data were obtained using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS), housed in Hall B of the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). The CLAS detector measured reaction products from a liquid-deuterium target produced by an energy-tagged, linearly polarised photon beam with energies in the range 1.1 to 2.3 GeV. Predictions from an isobar model indicate strong sensitivity to N(1720)3/2+, Δ(1900)1/2−, and N(1895)1/2−, which corroborates results from a recent combined analysis of all KΣ channels. When our data are incorporated in the fits of partial-wave analyses, one observes significant changes in -n couplings of resonances which have small branching ratios to the πN channel

Measurement of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering Off \u3csup\u3e4\u3c/sup\u3eHe with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer at Jefferson Lab

We report on the measurement of the beam spin asymmetry in the deeply virtual Compton scattering off 4He using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Lab using a 6 GeV longitudinally polarized electron beam incident on a pressurized 4He gaseous target. We detail the method used to ensure the exclusivity of the measured reactions, in particular the upgrade of CLAS with a radial time projection chamber to detect the low-energy recoiling 4He nuclei and an inner calorimeter to extend the photon detection acceptance at forward angles. Our results confirm the theoretically predicted enhancement of the coherent (e4He→e′4Heγ′) beam spin asymmetries compared to those observed on the free proton, while the incoherent (e4He→ e′p′γ′X′) asymmetries exhibit a 30% suppression. From the coherent data, we were able to extract, in a model-independent way, the real and imaginary parts of the only 4He Compton form factor, HA, leading the way toward 3D imaging of the partonic structure of nuclei