A massive, but light abelian U(1) gauge boson is a well motivated possible signature of physics beyond the Standard Model of particle physics. In this paper, the search for the signal of such a U(1) gauge boson in electron-positron pair-production at
the spectrometer setup of the A1 Collaboration at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) is described. Exclusion limits in the mass range of 40 MeV up to 300 MeV with a sensitivity in the mixing parameter of down to $epsilon^2 = 8times 10^{-7}$ are presented. A large fraction of the parameter space has been excluded where the discrepancy of the measured anomalous magnetic moment of the muon with theory might be explained by an additional U(1) gauge boson.
In the Kaos spectrometer at the Mainz Microtron a high-resolution coordinate detector for high-energy particles is operated. It consists of scintillating fibres with diameters of < 1mm and is read out by > 4000 multi-anode photomultiplier channels. I
t is one of the most modern focal-plane detectors for magnetic spectrometers world-wide. To correct variations in the detection efficiency, caused by the different gains and the different optical transmittances, a fully automated off-line calibration procedure has been developed. The process includes the positioning of a radioisotope source alongside the detector plane and the automated acquisition and analysis of the detector signals. It was possible to characterise and calibrate each individual fibre channel with a low degree of human interaction.
New, accurate data are presented on the near threshold p(e,ep)pi^0 reaction in the range of four-momentum transfers between Q^2=0.05 and 0.15GeV^2/c^2. The data were taken with the spectrometer setup of the A1 Collaboration at the Mainz Microtron MAM
I. The complete center of mass solid angle was covered up to a center of mass energy of 4MeV above threshold. These results supersede the previous analysis based on three separate experiments, and are compared with calculations in Heavy Baryon Chiral Perturbation Theory and with phenomenological models.
In arXiv:1108.3058v1 [nucl-ex], Arrington criticizes the Coulomb corrections we applied in the analysis of high precision form factor data (see Phys.Rev.Lett.105:242001, 2010, arXiv:1007.5076v3 [nucl-ex]). We show, by comparing different calculations
cited in the Comment, that the criticism of the Comment neglects the large uncertainty of more modern TPE corrections. This uncertainty has also been seen in recent polarized measurements. We rerun our analysis using one of these calculations. The results show that the Comment exaggerates the quantitative effect at small Q^2.
New precise results of a measurement of the elastic electron-proton scattering cross section performed at the Mainz Microtron MAMI are presented. About 1400 cross sections were measured with negative four-momentum transfers squared up to Q^2=1 (GeV/c
)^2 with statistical errors below 0.2%. The electric and magnetic form factors of the proton were extracted by fits of a large variety of form factor models directly to the cross sections. The form factors show some features at the scale of the pion cloud. The charge and magnetic radii are determined to be r_E=0.879(5)(stat.)(4)(syst.)(2)(model)(4)(group) fm and r_M=0.777(13)(stat.)(9)(syst.)(5)(model)(2)(group) fm.
We report on new H$(e,e^prime p)gamma$ measurements in the $Delta(1232)$ resonance at $Q^2=0.06$ (GeV/c) carried out simultaneously with H$(e,e^prime p)pi^0$. It is the lowest $Q^2$ for which the virtual Compton scattering (VCS) reaction has been stu
died in the first resonance region. The VCS measured cross sections are well described by dispersion-relation calculations in which the multipole amplitudes derived from H$(e,e^prime p)pi^0$ data are used as input, thus confirming the compatibility of the results. The derived resonant magnetic dipole amplitude $M^{3/2}_{1+} = (40.60 pm 0.70_{stat+sys})(10^{-3}/m_{pi^+})$ at $W=$ 1232 MeV is in excellent agreement with the value extracted from H$(e,e^prime p)pi^0$ measurements.
The performance of scintillating fibre detectors was studied with electrons at the spectrometer facility of the Mainz microtron MAMI, as well as in a C-12 beam of 2 AGeV energy and in a beam of different particle species at GSI. Multi-anode photomult
ipliers were used to read out one or more bundles of 128 fibres each in different geometries. For electrons a time resolution of FWHM = 1 ns was measured in a single detector plane with a detection efficiency epsilon > 99%. A time resolution of 310 ps (FWHM) between two planes of fibres was achieved for carbon ions, leading to a FWHM = 220 ps for a single detector. The hit position residual was measured with a width of FWHM = 0.27 mm. The variation in the measured energy deposition was Delta E/E= 15-20% (FWHM) for carbon ions. In addition, the energy response to p/pi/d particles was studied. Based on the good detector performance fibre hodoscopes will be constructed for the KAOS/A1 spectrometer at MAMI and for the HypHI experiment at GSI.
