Deeply virtual Compton scattering on longitudinally polarized protons and neutrons at CLAS

This paper focuses on a measurement of deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) performed at Jefferson Lab using a nearly-6-GeV polarized electron beam, two longitudinally polarized (via DNP) solid targets of protons (NH3) and deuterons (ND3) and the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer. Here, preliminary results for target-spin asymmetries and double (beam-target) asymmetries for proton DVCS, as well as a very preliminary extraction of beam-spin asymmetry for neutron DVCS, are presented and linked to Generalized Parton Distributions.

Light Baryon Spectroscopy using the CLAS Spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory

Baryons are complex systems of confined quarks and gluons and exhibit the characteristic spectra of excited states. The systematics of the baryon excitation spectrum is important to our understanding of the effective degrees of freedom underlying nucleon matter. High-energy electrons and photons are a remarkably clean probe of hadronic matter, providing a microscope for examining the nucleon and the strong nuclear force. Current experimental efforts with the CLAS spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory utilize highly-polarized frozen-spin targets in combination with polarized photon beams. The status of the recent double-polarization experiments and some preliminary results are discussed in this contribution.

Helicity Asymmetry in gamma p -> pi+ n with FROST

The main objective of the FROST experiment at Jefferson Lab is the study of baryon resonances. The polarization observable E for the reaction gamma p to pi+n has been measured as part of this program. A circularly polarized tagged photon beam with energies from 0.35 to 2.35 GeV was incident on a longitudinally polarized frozen-spin butanol target. The final-state pions were detected with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer. Preliminary polarization data agree fairly well with present SAID and MAID partial-wave analyses at low photon energies. In most of the covered energy range, however, significant deviations are observed. These discrepancies underline the crucial importance of polarization observables to further constrain these analyses.

Measurement of Single and Double Spin Asymmetries in Deep Inelastic Pion Electroproduction with a Longitudinally Polarized Target

We report the first measurement of the transverse momentum dependence of double spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive production of pions in deep inelastic scattering off the longitudinally polarized proton. Data have been obtained using a polarized electron beam of 5.7 GeV with the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab). A significant non-zero $sin2phi$ single spin asymmetry was also observed for the first time indicating strong spin-orbit correlations for transversely polarized quarks in the longitudinally polarized proton. The azimuthal modulations of single spin asymmetries have been measured over a wide kinematic range.

Beam Spin Asymmetries in DVCS with CLAS at 4 .8 GeV

We report measurements of the beam spin asymmetry in Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering (DVCS) at an electron beam energy of 4.8 GeV using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The DVCS beam spin asymmetry has been measured in a wide range of kinematics, 1(GeV/c)$^2$ $<Q^2<2.8$(GeV/c)$^2$, $0.12<x_B<0.48$, and 0.1 (GeV/c)$^2$ $<-t<0.8$(GeV/c)$^2$, using the reaction pEpX. The number of H$(e,e^{prime}gamma p)$ and H$(e,e^{prime}pi^0 p)$ events are separated in each $(Q^2,x_B,t)$ bin by a fit to the line shape of the H$(e,e^{prime}p)X$ $M_x^2$ distribution. The validity of the method was studied in detail using experimental and simulated data. It was shown, that with the achieved missing mass squared resolution and the available statistics, the separation of DVCS-BH and $pi^0$ events can reliably be done with less than 5% uncertainty. The $Q^2$- and $t$-dependences of the $sinphi$ moments of the asymmetry are extracted and compared with theoretical calculations.

Beam-Recoil Polarization Transfer in the Nucleon Resonance Region in the Exclusive $vec{e}p to eK^+vec{Lambda}$ and $vec{e}p to eK^+vec{Sigma}^0$ Reactions at CLAS

Beam-recoil transferred polarizations for the exclusive $vec{e}p to eK^+ vec{Lambda},vec{Sigma}^0$ reactions have been measured using the CLAS spectrometer at Jefferson Laboratory. New measurements have been completed at beam energies of 4.261 and 5.754 GeV that span a range of momentum transfer $Q^2$ from 0.7 to 5.4 GeV$^2$, invariant energy $W$ from 1.6 to 2.6 GeV, and the full center-of-mass angular range of the $K^+$ meson. These new data add to the existing CLAS $K^+Lambda$ measurements at 2.567 GeV, and provide the first-ever data for the $K^+Sigma^0$ channel in electroproduction. Comparisons of the data with several theoretical models are used to study the sensitivity to s-channel resonance contributions and the underlying reaction mechanism. Interpretations within two semi-classical partonic models are made to probe the underlying reaction mechanism and the $sbar{s}$ quark-pair creation dynamics.

$pi^+$ photoproduction on the proton for photon energies from 0.725 to 2.875 GeV

Differential cross sections for the reaction $gamma p to n pi^+$ have been measured with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) and a tagged photon beam with energies from 0.725 to 2.875 GeV. Where available, the results obtained here compare well with previously published results for the reaction. Agreement with the SAID and MAID analyses is found below 1 GeV. The present set of cross sections has been incorporated into the SAID database, and exploratory fits have been made up to 2.7 GeV. Resonance couplings have been extracted and compared to previous determinations. With the addition of these cross sections to the world data set, significant changes have occurred in the high-energy behavior of the SAID cross-section predictions and amplitudes.