No abstract

Among the most fundamental observables of nucleon structure, electromagnetic form factors are a crucial benchmark for modern calculations describing the strong interaction dynamics of the nucleon's quark constituents; indeed, recent proton data have attracted intense theoretical interest. In this Letter, we report new measurements of the proton electromagnetic form factor ratio using the recoil polarization method, at momentum transfers Q2=5.2, 6.7, and 8.5  GeV2. By extending the range of Q2 for which G(E)(p) is accurately determined by more than 50%, these measurements will provide significant constraints on models of nucleon structure in the nonperturbative regime.

In an exclusive measurement of the reaction gammad-->K(+)K(-)pn, a narrow peak that can be attributed to an exotic baryon with strangeness S=+1 is seen in the K(+)n invariant mass spectrum. The peak is at 1.542+/-0.005 GeV/c(2) with a measured width of 0.021 GeV/c(2) FWHM, which is largely determined by experimental mass resolution. The statistical significance of the peak is (5.2+/-0.6)sigma. The mass and width of the observed peak are consistent with recent reports of a narrow S=+1 baryon by other experimental groups.

Intensive theoretical and experimental efforts over the past decade have aimed at explaining the discrepancy between data for the proton electric to magnetic form factor ratio, G(E)/G(M), obtained separately from cross section and polarization transfer measurements. One possible explanation for this difference is a two-photon-exchange contribution. In an effort to search for effects beyond the one-photon-exchange or Born approximation, we report measurements of polarization transfer observables in the elastic H(e[over →],e(')p[over →]) reaction for three different beam energies at a Q(2)=2.5  GeV(2), spanning a wide range of the kinematic parameter ε. The ratio R, which equals μ(p)G(E)/G(M) in the Born approximation, is found to be independent of ε at the 1.5% level. The ε dependence of the longitudinal polarization transfer component P(ℓ) shows an enhancement of (2.3±0.6)% relative to the Born approximation at large ε.

The ratios of inclusive electron scattering cross sections of 4 He, 12 C, and 56 Fe to 3 He have been measured for the first time. It is shown that these ratios are independent of x B at Q 2 Ͼ1.4 GeV 2 for x B Ͼ1.5, where the inclusive cross section depends primarily on the high momentum components of the nuclear wave function. The observed scaling shows that the momentum distributions at high-momenta have the same shape for all nuclei and differ only by a scale factor. The observed onset of the scaling at Q 2 Ͼ1.4 GeV 2 and x B Ͼ1.5 is consistent with the kinematical expectation that two-nucleon short range correlations ͑SRC͒ dominate the nuclear wave function at p m տ300 MeV/c. The values of these ratios in the scaling region can be related to the relative probabilities of SRC in nuclei with Aу3. Our data, combined with calculations and other measurements of the 3 He/deuterium ratio, demonstrate that for nuclei with Aу12 these probabilities are 4.9-5.9 times larger than in deuterium, while for 4 He it is larger by a factor of about 3.8.