E. A. Pozharova

Neutrino production of charmed particles in a hybrid experiment E-564

AbstractCryogenically sensitive nuclear emulsion was placed inside the 15-foot bubble chamber of FNAL and exposed to a wide-band energy (up to 200 GeV) neutrino beam. 194 charged-current neutrino interactions and 13 decays of charmed particles were registered. Using the nuclear emulsion as a vertex detector with the good spectrometric properties of the 15-foot bubble chamber has allowed the decays of charmed particles to be effectively analysed. Attentions is focussed on the new physical results. Λc+ baryon andDs+ meson decay channels, production of charmed ∑c baryons and Λc+ via ∑c. For the first time an event interpreted as production of the excited (c

Emission of light nuclei (p, d, t, α) in the process of annihilation of slow antiprotons in nuclear emulsion

\overline s

Backward emitted protons in interactions of neutrinos with nuclei in photoemulsion

)-state with mass ∼2790 MeV/c2 has been registered.

Estimation ofvμ→vτ oscillation parameters in the E-564 hybrid experiment

Stacks of nuclear emulsion were exposed at the Brookhaven AGS to a 10.6 GeV/n beam of gold nuclei in the BNL 868 experiment. A preliminary analysis of the main features of the interactions of these nuclei is reported here and compared with those observed previously at lower energies,E<1 GeV/n. The multiplicity and pseudo-rapidity distributions of the singly charged particles emitted both in central and in minimum bias samples of interactions have been analyzed in order to look for any non random effects indicative of the nuclear state during the interactions. The fragmentation characteristics of the gold projectiles appear to be different at 10.6 GeV/n from those at ≦1 GeV/n incident energy. Fission of the gold projectiles, which was relatively frequent at low energy, is almost entirely suppressed. Some of alpha particles from the projectile are emitted with very large transverse momenta. In gold-emulsion interactions the residual target nuclei are significantly smaller than in oxygen and sulfur interactions in emulsion.

Absorption of slow K− mesons in nuclear emulsion

The annihilation of slow (∼7 MeV) antiprotons in nuclear emulsion has been studied. The yields and energy spectra of p, d, t, and α particles in the evaporation region have been measured. The shape of the spectra of p, d, and t is in agreement with the Maxwell distribution and the excitation energy of a nucleus is consistent with a theoretical estimate for evaporation from the equilibrium state. The probability of the absorption of antiprotons inside the nucleus estimated from the multiplicity of h particles is ɛ = (2.0 ± 0.6) × 10−2. The relative d/p yield coincides with a similar ratio appearing in the capture of slow π− mesons by nuclei in the nuclear emulsion. The yields of t and α particles in the process of the annihilation of antiprotons are much higher than those in a similar process for pions. To identify g particles (0.29 < β < 0.70), energy losses dE/dx on ionization and multiple scattering have been measured. In this velocity region, the yields of p, d, t, and pions have been observed. The ratios (nd/np)g, (nd/np)b, and nd/np measured in the capture of π− mesons are almost the same. In this velocity range (g particles), α particles have not been observed.

Observation of e ± in the inelastic e + A interaction

We have investigated the particle production and fragmentation of nuclei participating in the interactions of 10.6 GeV/n gold nuclei in nuclear emulsions. A new criterion has been found to distinguish between the interactions of these gold nuclei with the light (H,C,N,O) and heavy (Ag, Br) target nuclei in the emulsion. This has allowed separate analyses of the multiplicity and pseudo-rapidity distributions of the singly charged particles emitted in Au-(H,C,N,O) and Au-(Ag,Br) interactions, as well as of the modes of breakup of the projectile and target nuclei. The pseudo-rapidity distributions show strong forward asymmetries, particularly for the interactions with the light nuclei. Heavy target nuclei produce a more severe breakup of the projectile gold nucleus than do the lighter targets. A negative correlation between the number of fragments emitted from the target nuclei and the degree of centrality of the collisions has been observed, which can be attributed to the total destruction of the relatively light target nuclei by these very heavy projectile nuclei.

Measurement of the sizes of a source of α particles from the collisions of relativistic 22Ne and 24Mg nuclei with photoemulsion nuclei

Backward emitted protons with momentump>0.3 GeV/c in interactions of neutrino in the energy range 10–200 GeV with photoemulsion nuclei were investigated. Energy spectrum slope parameter of backward protons was measured to beT0=48.9±7.9 MeV. TheA-dependence power index of relative mean yield of backward protons was found to bea=0.68±0.12. A drop in the mean yield of backward protons at the four momentum squared over ∼15 (GeV/c)2 (the neutrino energy over ∼50 GeV) was observed.

Measuring the distortion in nuclear emulsion using α particles from a radioactive source

The limits on the parameters of thevμ→vτ oscillations are obtained in the E-564 hybrid experiment: Δm2≦4.5 eV2 and sin2(2θ)≦6.0·10−2 (90% CL). A possibility of direct observation of τ-lepton decays in the nuclear emulsion vertex detector allowed the sensitivity of this experiment to the parameters of the oscillations to be increased.