No Arabic abstract
We have developed a model for the N N --> N N pi pi reaction and evaluated cross sections for the different charged channels. The low energy part of those channels where the pions can be in an isospin zero state is dominated by N* excitation, driven by an isoscalar source recently found experimentally, followed by the decay N* --> N (pi pi, T=0, s-wave). At higher energies, and in channels where the pions are not in T=0, Delta excitation mechanisms become relevant. A rough agreement with the experimental data is obtained in most channels. Repercussions of the present findings for the ABC effect and the p p --> p p pi0 reaction close to threshold are also suggested.
As a step toward performing a complete coupled-channels analysis of the world data of pi N, gamma^* N --> pi N, eta N, pi pi N reactions, the pi N --> pi pi N reactions are investigated starting with the dynamical coupled-channels model developed in Phys. Rev. C76, 065201 (2007). The channels included are pi N, eta N, and pi pi N which has pi Delta, rho N, and sigma N resonant components. The non-resonant amplitudes are generated from solving a set of coupled-channels equations with the meson-baryon potentials defined by effective Lagrangians. The resonant amplitudes are generated from 16 bare excited nucleon (N^*) states which are dressed by the non-resonant interactions as constrained by the unitarity condition. The data of total cross sections and pi N and pi pi invariant mass distributions of pi^+ p --> pi^+ pi^+ n, pi^+ pi^0p and pi^- p --> pi^+ pi^- n, pi^- pi^0 n, pi^0 pi^0 n reactions from threshold to the invariant mass W = 2 GeV can be described to a very large extent. We show the importance of the coupled-channels effects and the strong interference between the contributions from the pi Delta, sigma N, and rho N channels. The large interference between the resonant and non-resonant amplitudes is also demonstrated. Possible future developements are discussed.
The N*(1440) -> N pi pi decay is studied by making use of the chiral reduction formula. This formula suggests a scalar-isoscalar pion-baryon contact interaction which is absent in the recent study of Hern{a}ndez et al. The contact interaction is introduced into their model, and is found to be necessary for the simultaneous description of g_{RN pi pi} and the pi-pi and pi-N invariant mass distributions.
We study the pi N --> phi N reaction close to the phi N threshold within the chiral unitary approach, by combining the pi^- p --> K^+ Sigma^-, pi^- p --> K^0 Sigma^0 and pi^- p --> K^0 Lambda amplitudes with the coupling of the phi to the K components of the final states of these reactions via quantum loops. We obtain a good agreement with experiment when the dominant pi^- p --> K^0 Lambda amplitude is constrained with its experimental cross section. We also evaluate the coupling of the N*(1535) to phi N and find a moderate coupling as a consequence of partial cancellation of the large KY components of the N*(1535). We also show that the N*(1535) pole approximation is too small to reproduce the measured cross section for the pi N --> phi N reaction.
The near-threshold n p -> d pi0 cross section is calculated in chiral perturbation theory to next-to-leading order in the expansion parameter sqrt{M m_pi}/Lambda_chi. At this order irreducible pion loops contribute to the relevant pion-production operator. While their contribution to this operator is finite, considering initial-and final-state distortions produces a linear divergence in its matrix elements. We renormalize this divergence by introducing a counterterm, whose value we choose in order to reproduce the threshold n p -> d pi0 cross section measured at TRIUMF. The energy-dependence of this cross section is then predicted in chiral perturbation theory, being determined by the production of p-wave pions, and also by energy dependence in the amplitude for the production of s-wave pions. With an appropriate choice of the counterterm, the chiral prediction for this energy dependence converges well.
The production of eta mesons in photon- and hadron-induced reactions has been revisited in view of the recent additions of high-precision data to the world data base. Based on an effective Lagrangian approach, we have performed a combined analysis of the free and quasi-free gamma N -> eta N, N N -> N N eta, and pi N -> eta N reactions. Considering spin-1/2 and -3/2 resonances, we found that a set of above-threshold resonances {S_{11}, P_{11}, P_{13}}, with fitted mass values of about M_R=1925, 2130, and 2050 MeV, respectively, and the four-star sub-threshold P_{13}(1720) resonance reproduce best all existing data for the eta production processes in the resonance-energy region considered in this work. All three above-threshold resonances found in the present analysis are essential and indispensable for the good quality of the present fits.