No Arabic abstract
A systematic study of the production of omega-mesons in proton-proton-collisions was carried out in a kinematically complete experiment at three excess energies(epsilon= 92, 128, 173MeV). Both protons were detected using the large-acceptance COSY-TOF spectrometer at an external beam line at the Cooler Synchrotron COSY at Forschungszentrum Julich. The total cross section, angular distributions of both omega-mesons and protons were measured and presented in various reference frames such as the overall CMS, helicity and Jackson frame. In addition, the orientation of the omega-spin and invariant mass spectra were determined. We observe omega-production to take place dominantly in Ss and Sp final states at epsilon = 92, 128 MeV and, additionally, in Sd at epsilon= 173 MeV. No obvious indication of resonant omega-production via N^*-resonances was found, as proton angular distributions are almost isotropic and invariant mass spectra are compatible with phase space distributions. A dominant role of ^3P_1 and ^1S_0 initial partial waves for omega-production was concluded from the orientation of the decay plane of the omega-meson. Although the Jackson angle distributions in the omega-p-Jackson frame are anisotropic we argue that this is not an indication of a resonance but rather a kinematical effect reflecting the anisotropy of the omega angular distribution. The helicity angle distribution in the omega-p-helicity frame shows an anisotropy which probably reflects effects of the omega angular momenta in the final state; this observable may be, in addition to the orientation of the omega decay plane, the most sensitive one to judge the validity of theoretical descriptions of the production process.
The total cross section for omega production in the pp -> pp omega reaction has been measured at five c.m. excess energies from 3.8 to 30 MeV. The energy dependence is easily understood in terms of a strong proton-proton final state interaction combined with a smearing over the width of the state. The ratio of near-threshold phi and omega production is consistent with the predictions of a one-pion-exchange model and the degree of violation of the OZI rule is similar to that found in the pi-p -> n omega/phi reactions.
A high statistics measurement of the pp --> ppeta reaction at an excess energy of Q = 15.5 MeV has been performed at the internal beam facility COSY-11. The stochastically cooled proton beam and the used detection system allowed to determine the momenta of the outgoing protons with a precision of 4 MeV/c (sigma) in the center-of-mass frame. The determination of the four-momentum vectors of both outgoing protons allowed to derive the complete kinematical information of the ppeta-system. An unexpectedly large enhancement of the occupation density in the kinematical regions of low proton-eta relative momenta is observed. A description taking the proton-proton and the eta-proton interaction into account and assuming an on-shell incoherent pairwise interaction among the produced particles fails to explain this strong effect. Its understanding will require a rigorous three-body approach to the ppeta system and the precise determination of contributions from higher partial waves. We also present an invariant mass spectrum of the proton-proton system determined at Q = 4.5 MeV. Interestingly, the enhancement at large relative momenta between protons is visible also at such a small excess energy. In contrast to all other determined angular distributions, the orientation of the emission plane with respect to the beam direction is extracted to be anisotropic.
The production of omega-mesons in the pp->pp omega reaction has been investigated with the COSY-ANKE spectrometer for excess energies of 60 and 92MeV by detecting the two final protons and reconstructing their missing mass. The large multipion background was subtracted using an event-by-event transformation of the proton momenta between the two energies. Differential distributions and total cross sections were obtained after careful studies of possible systematic uncertainties in the overall ANKE acceptance. The results are compared with the predictions of theoretical models. Combined with data on the phi-meson, a more refined estimate is made of the Okubo-Zweig-Iizuka rule violation in the phi/omega production ratio.
The cross section for prompt neutral and charged three pion production in pp interactions was measured at excess energies in the range 160 - 217 MeV. That comprises the first measurement of the pp->pp pi0pi0pi0 reaction and the comparison with the pp->pp pi+pi-pi0 reaction, in a very direct way. The experiment was performed above the eta meson production threshold and the cross section normalization was obtained from a concurrent measurement of the reaction pp->pp eta with the eta decaying into 3 pions. Since the same final states are selected, the measurement has a low systematical error. The measured cross section ratio sigma(pp->pp pi+pi-pi0)/sigma(pp->pp pi0pi0pi0) is compared to predictions of dominance of different isobars in the intermediate state.
Fully constrained bubble chamber data on the pp -> pi+ pn and pp -> pi+ d reactions are used to investigate the ratio of the counting rates for the two processes as function of the pn excitation energy Q. Though it is important to include effects associated with the p-wave nature of pion production, the data are insufficient to establish unambiguously the dependence on Q. The angular distributions show the presence of higher partial waves which seem to be anomalously large at small Q. The dispersion relation method to determine scattering lengths is extended to encompass cases where, as for the pp -> pi+ pn reaction, there is a bound state and, in a test example, it is shown that the values deduced for the low energy neutron-proton scattering parameters are significantly influenced by the pion p-wave behavior.