The two-body photodisintegration of $^4$He into a proton and a triton has been studied using the CEBAF Large-Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at Jefferson Laboratory. Real photons produced with the Hall-B bremsstrahlung-tagging system in the energy ran
ge from 0.35 to 1.55 GeV were incident on a liquid $^4$He target. This is the first measurement of the photodisintegration of $^4$He above 0.4 GeV. The differential cross sections for the $gamma$$^4$He$to pt$ reaction have been measured as a function of photon-beam energy and proton-scattering angle, and are compared with the latest model calculations by J.-M. Laget. At 0.6-1.2 GeV, our data are in good agreement only with the calculations that include three-body mechanisms, thus confirming their importance. These results reinforce the conclusion of our previous study of the three-body breakup of $^3$He that demonstrated the great importance of three-body mechanisms in the energy region 0.5-0.8 GeV .
The light vector mesons ($rho$, $omega$, and $phi$) were produced in deuterium, carbon, titanium, and iron targets in a search for possible in-medium modifications to the properties of the $rho$ meson at normal nuclear densities and zero temperature.
The vector mesons were detected with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) via their decays to $e^{+}e^{-}$. The rare leptonic decay was chosen to reduce final-state interactions. A combinatorial background was subtracted from the invariant mass spectra using a well-established event-mixing technique. The $rho$ meson mass spectrum was extracted after the $omega$ and $phi$ signals were removed in a nearly model-independent way. Comparisons were made between the $rho$ mass spectra from the heavy targets ($A > 2$) with the mass spectrum extracted from the deuterium target. With respect to the $rho$-meson mass, we obtain a small shift compatible with zero. Also, we measure widths consistent with standard nuclear many-body effects such as collisional broadening and Fermi motion.
