R. Miskimen

The CLAS drift chamber system

Abstract Experimental Hall B at Jefferson Laboratory houses the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer, the magnetic field of which is produced by a superconducting toroid. The six coils of this toroid divide the detector azimuthally into six sectors, each of which contains three large multi-layer drift chambers for tracking charged particles produced from a fixed target on the toroidal axis. Within the 18 drift chambers are a total of 35,148 individually instrumented hexagonal drift cells. The novel geometry of these chambers provides for good tracking resolution and efficiency, along with large acceptance. The design and construction challenges posed by these large-scale detectors are described, and detailed results are presented from in-beam measurements.

Measurement of the Transverse Target and Beam-Target Asymmetries in η Meson Photoproduction at MAMI

We present new data for the transverse target asymmetry T and the very first data for the beam-target asymmetry F in the γ p →ηp reaction up to a center-of-mass energy of W=1.9  GeV. The data were obtained with the Crystal-Ball/TAPS detector setup at the Glasgow tagged photon facility of the Mainz Microtron MAMI. All existing model predictions fail to reproduce the new data indicating a significant impact on our understanding of the underlying dynamics of η meson photoproduction. The peculiar nodal structure observed in existing T data close to threshold is not confirmed.

New Measurement of the π0 Radiative Decay Width

High precision measurements of the differential cross sections for π0 photoproduction at forward angles for two nuclei, 12C and 208Pb, have been performed for incident photon energies of 4.9-5.5 GeV to extract the π0→γγ decay width. The experiment was done at Jefferson Lab using the Hall B photon tagger and a high-resolution multichannel calorimeter. The π0→γγ decay width was extracted by fitting the measured cross sections using recently updated theoretical models for the process. The resulting value for the decay width is Γ(π0→γγ)=7.82±0.14(stat)±0.17(syst)  eV. With the 2.8% total uncertainty, this result is a factor of 2.5 more precise than the current Particle Data Group average of this fundamental quantity, and it is consistent with current theoretical predictions.

Measurements of double-polarized compton scattering asymmetries and extraction of the proton spin polarizabilities.

The spin polarizabilities of the nucleon describe how the spin of the nucleon responds to an incident polarized photon. The most model-independent way to extract the nucleon spin polarizabilities is through polarized Compton scattering. Double-polarized Compton scattering asymmetries on the proton were measured in the Δ(1232) region using circularly polarized incident photons and a transversely polarized proton target at the Mainz Microtron. Fits to asymmetry data were performed using a dispersion model calculation and a baryon chiral perturbation theory calculation, and a separation of all four proton spin polarizabilities in the multipole basis was achieved. The analysis based on a dispersion model calculation yields γ(E1E1)=-3.5±1.2, γ(M1M1)=3.16±0.85, γ(E1M2)=-0.7±1.2, and γ(M1E2)=1.99±0.29, in units of 10(-4)  fm(4).

Induced Proton Polarization for pi0 Electroproduction at Q2 = 0.126 GeV2/c2 Around the Delta(1232) Resonance

We present a measurement of the induced proton polarization P{sub n} in {pi}{sup 0} electroproduction on the proton around the {Delta} resonance. The measurement was made at a central invariant mass and a squared four-momentum transfer of W = 1231 MeV and Q{sup 2} = 0.126 GeV{sup 2}/c{sup 2}, respectively. We measured a large induced polarization, P{sub n} = -0.397 {+-} 0.055 {+-} 0.009. The data suggest that the scalar background is larger than expected from a recent effective Hamiltonian model.

Measurement of

Differential cross sections for the gamma p -> pi(0)p reaction have been measured with the A2 tagged-photon facilities at the Mainz Microtron, MAMI C, up to the center-of-mass energy W = 1.9 GeV. The new results, obtained with a fine energy and angular binning, increase the existing quantity of pi(0) photoproduction data by similar to 47%. Owing to the unprecedented statistical accuracy and the full angular coverage, the results are sensitive to high partial-wave amplitudes. This is demonstrated by the decomposition of the differential cross sections in terms of Legendre polynomials and by further comparison to model predictions. A new solution of the SAID partial-wave analysis obtained after adding the new data into the fit is presented.

π^0

Measurements of inclusive electron-scattering cross sections using hydrogen and deuterium targets in the region of the Delta(1232) resonance are reported. A global fit to these new data and previous data in the resonance region is also reported for the proton. Transition form factors have been extracted from the proton cross sections for this experiment over the four-momentum transfer squared range 1.64 < Q~2 < 6.75 (GeV/c)~2 and from previous data over the range 2.41 < Q~2 < 9.82 (GeV/c)~2. The results confirm previous reports that the Delta(1232) transition form factor decreases more rapidly with Q~2 than expected from perturbative QCD. The ratio of sigma _n \sigma_p in the \Delta(1232) resonance region has been extracted from the deuteron data for this experiment in the range 1.64 < Q~2 < 3.75 (GeV/c)~2 and for a previous experiment in the range 2.4 < Q~2 < 7.9 (GeV/c)~2. A study has been made of the model dependence of these results. This ratio sigma_n\sigma_p for \Delta(1232) production is slightly less than unity, while sigma_n\sigma_p for the nonresonant cross sections is approximately 0.5, which is consistent with deep inelastic scattering results.

photoproduction on the proton at MAMI C

The double polarization observable E and the helicity dependent cross sections σ_{1/2} and σ_{3/2} were measured for η photoproduction from quasifree protons and neutrons. The circularly polarized tagged photon beam of the A2 experiment at the Mainz MAMI accelerator was used in combination with a longitudinally polarized deuterated butanol target. The almost 4π detector setup of the Crystal Ball and TAPS is ideally suited to detect the recoil nucleons and the decay photons from η→2γ and η→3π^{0}. The results show that the narrow structure previously observed in η photoproduction from the neutron is only apparent in σ_{1/2} and hence, most likely related to a spin-1/2 amplitude. Nucleon resonances that contribute to this partial wave in η production are only N 1/2^{-} (S_{11}) and N 1/2^{+} (P_{11}). Furthermore, the extracted Legendre coefficients of the angular distributions for σ_{1/2} are in good agreement with recent reaction model predictions assuming a narrow resonance in the P_{11} wave as the origin of this structure.

Measurements of the Delta(1232) transition form factor and the ratio sigma(n)/sigma(p) from inelastic electron-proton and electron-deuteron scattering

The mean square polarizability radii of the proton have been measured for the first time in a virtual-Compton-scattering experiment performed at the MIT-Bates out-of-plane scattering facility. Response functions and polarizabilities obtained from a dispersion analysis of the data at Q2 = 0.057 GeV2/c2 are in agreement with O(p3) heavy baryon chiral perturbation theory. The data support the dominance of mesonic effects in the polarizabilities.

Insight into the Narrow Structure in η Photoproduction on the Neutron from Helicity-Dependent Cross Sections

Quadrupole amplitudes in the