Study of exclusive central hadron production at the ISR as a search for gluonium states: the axial field spectrometer collaboration

Abstract

We present a preliminary report on a study of the exclusive reaction pp ..-->.. pph/sup +/h/sup -/ (h = ..pi..,K,p) at ..sqrt..s = 63 GeV and ..sqrt..s = 45 GeV, with h/sup +/ and h/sup -/ in the central region. This reaction has been suggested as a method of searching for gluonium states. The mass distributions in the ..pi../sup +/..pi../sup -/ system appear to be identical at the two values of ..sqrt..s. They show a rapid order of magnitude decrease in cross-section at 1000 MeV/c/sup 2/ and 1500 MeV/c/sup 2/. Further structure is observed above 2000 MeV/c/sup 2/