Differential and total cross sections for the quasifree reactions γp → ηp and γn → ηn have been determined at the MAMI-C electron accelerator using a liquid deuterium target. Photons were produced via bremsstrahlung from the 1.5 GeV incident electron beam and energy-tagged with the Glasgow photon tagger. Decay photons of the neutral decay modes η → 2γ and η → 3π 0 → 6γ and coincident recoil nucleons were detected in a combined setup of the Crystal Ball and the TAPS calorimeters. The η-production cross sections were measured in coincidence with recoil protons, recoil neutrons, and in an inclusive mode without a condition on recoil nucleons, which allowed a check of the internal consistency of the data. The effects from nuclear Fermi motion were removed by a kinematic reconstruction of the final-state invariant mass and possible nuclear effects on the quasifree cross section were investigated by a comparison of free and quasifree proton data. The results, which represent a significant improvement in statistical quality compared to previous measurements, agree with the known neutron-to-proton cross-section ratio in the peak of the S11(1535) resonance and confirm a peak in the neutron cross section, which is absent for the proton, at a center-of-mass energy W = (1670 ± 5) MeV with an intrinsic width of Γ ≈ 30 MeV.

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The differential and total cross sections for kaon pair production in the pp → ppK + K − reaction have been measured at three beam energies of 2.65, 2.70, and 2.83 GeV using the ANKE magnetic spectrometer at the COSY-Jülich accelerator. These near-threshold data are separated into pairs arising from the decay of the φ-meson and the remainder. For the non-φ selection, the ratio of the differential cross sections in terms of the K − p and K + p invariant masses is strongly peaked towards low masses. This effect can be described quantitatively by using a simple ansatz for the K − p final state interaction, where it is seen that the data are sensitive to the magnitude of an effective K − p scattering length. When allowance is made for a small number of φ events where the K − rescatters from the proton, the φ region is equally well described at all three energies. A very similar phenomenon is discovered in the ratio of the cross sections as functions of the K − pp and K + pp invariant masses and the identical final state interaction model is also very successful here. The world data on the energy dependence of the non-φ total cross section is also reproduced, except possibly for the results closest to threshold.

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Coherent photoproduction of η-mesons off 3 He, i.e. the reaction γ 3 He → η 3 He, has been investigated in the near-threshold region. The experiment was performed at the Glasgow tagged photon facility of the Mainz MAMI accelerator with the combined Crystal Ball -TAPS detector. Angular distributions and the total cross section were measured using the η → γγ and η → 3π 0 → 6γ decay channels. The observed extremely sharp rise of the cross section at threshold and the behavior of the angular distributions are evidence for a strong η 3 He final state interaction, pointing to the existence of a resonant state. The search for further evidence of this state in the excitation function of π 0 -proton back-to-back emission in the γ 3 He → π 0 pX reaction revealed a very complicated structure of the background and could not support previous conclusions.

A new method to determine the spin tune is described and tested. In an ideal planar magnetic ring, the spin tune-defined as the number of spin precessions per turn-is given by ν s ¼ γG (γ is the Lorentz factor, G the gyromagnetic anomaly). At 970 MeV=c, the deuteron spins coherently precess at a frequency of ≈120 kHz in the Cooler Synchrotron COSY. The spin tune is deduced from the up-down asymmetry of deuteron-carbon scattering. In a time interval of 2.6 s, the spin tune was determined with a precision of the PRL 115, 094801 (2015) P H Y S I C A L

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