Experimental study ofηmeson photoproduction reaction at MAMI

Abstract

Abstract. New data for the differential cross sections, polarization observables T , F, and E in the reaction of η photoproduction on proton from the threshold up to a center-of-mass energy of W=1.9 GeV are presented. The data were obtained with the Crystal-Ball/TAPS detector setup at the Glasgow tagged photon facility of the Mainz Microtron MAMI. The polarization measurements were made using a frozen-spin butanol target and circularly polarized photon beam. The results are compared to existing experimental data and different PWA predictions. The data solve a long-standing problem related the angular dependence of older T data close to threshold. The unexpected relative phase motion between s-and d-wave amplitudes required by the old data is not confirmed. At higher energies, all model predictions fail to reproduce the new polarization data indicating a significant impact on our understanding of the underlying dynamics of η meson photoproduction. Furthermore, we present a fit of the new data and existing data from GRAAL for Σ asymmetry based on an expansion in terms of associated Legendre polynomials. A Legendre decomposition shows the sensitivity to small partialwave contributions. The sensitivity of the Legendre coefficients to the nucleon resonance parameters is shown using the ηMAID isobar model.