Search Results (62 total)

We present results on the electroexcitation of the low mass resonances Δ(1232)P₃₃, N(1440)P₁₁, N(1520)D₁₃, and N(1535)S₁₁ in a wide range of Q². The results were obtained in the comprehensive analysis of data from the Continuous Electron Beam Accelerator Facility (CEBAF) large acceptance spectrometer (CLAS) detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility (JLab) on differential cross sections, longitudinally polarized beam asymmetries, and longitudinal target and beam-target asymmetries for π electroproduction off the proton. The data were analyzed using two conceptually different approaches—fixed-t dispersion relations and a unitary isobar model—allowing us to draw conclusions on the model sensitivity of the obtained electrocoupling amplitudes. The amplitudes for the Δ(1232)P₃₃ show the importance of a meson-cloud contribution to quantitatively explain the magnetic dipole strength, as well as the electric and scalar quadrupole transitions. They do not show any tendency of approaching the pQCD regime for Q²≤6 GeV². For the Roper resonance, N(1440)P₁₁, the data provide strong evidence that this state is a predominantly radial excitation of a three-quark (3q) ground state. Measured in pion electroproduction, the transverse helicity amplitude for the N(1535)S₁₁ allowed us to obtain the branching ratios of this state to the πN and ηN channels via comparison with the results extracted from η electroproduction. The extensive CLAS data also enabled the extraction of the γ^*p→N(1520)D₁₃ and N(1535)S₁₁ longitudinal helicity amplitudes with good precision. For the N(1535)S₁₁, these results became a challenge for quark models and may be indicative of large meson-cloud contributions or of representations of this state that differ from a 3q excitation. The transverse amplitudes for the N(1520)D₁₃ clearly show the rapid changeover from helicity-3/2 dominance at the real photon point to helicity-1/2 dominance at Q²>1 GeV², confirming a long-standing prediction of the constituent quark model.

The two-body photodisintegration of ⁴He into a proton and a triton has been studied using the CEBAF Large-Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. Real photons produced with the Hall-B bremsstrahlung-tagging system in the energy range from 0.35 to 1.55 GeV were incident on a liquid ⁴He target. This is the first measurement of the photodisintegration of ⁴He above 0.4 GeV. The differential cross sections for the γ⁴He→pt reaction were measured as a function of photon-beam energy and proton-scattering angle and are compared with the latest model calculations by J.-M. Laget. At 0.6-1.2 GeV, our data are in good agreement only with the calculations that include three-body mechanisms, thus confirming their importance. These results reinforce the conclusion of our previous study of the three-body breakup of ³He that demonstrated the great importance of three-body mechanisms in the energy region 0.5-0.8 GeV.

We report measurements of the beam spin asymmetry in deeply virtual Compton scattering (DVCS) at an electron beam energy of 4.8 GeV using the CLAS detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The DVCS beam spin asymmetry has been measured in a wide range of kinematics, 1.0<Q²<2.8 (GeV/c)², 0.12<x_B<0.48, and 0.1<-t<0.8 (GeV/c)², using the reaction e→p→e^'pX. The number of H(e,e^'γp) and H(e,e^'π⁰p) events are separated in each (Q²,x_B,t) bin by a fit to the line shape of the H(e,e^'p)X M_x² distribution. The validity of the method was studied in detail using experimental and simulated data. It was shown that with the achieved missing mass squared resolution and the available statistics, the separation of DVCS–Bethe-Heitler and π⁰ events can reliably be done with less than 5% uncertainty. Also, the Q² and t dependences of the sinϕ moments of the asymmetry are extracted and compared with theoretical calculations.

The neutron elastic magnetic form factor was extracted from quasielastic electron scattering on deuterium over the range Q²=1.0–4.8  GeV² with the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. High precision was achieved with a ratio technique and a simultaneous in situ calibration of the neutron detection efficiency. Neutrons were detected with electromagnetic calorimeters and time-of-flight scintillators at two beam energies. The dipole parametrization gives a good description of the data.

We have made the first measurements of the virtual Compton scattering (VCS) process via the H(e, e^'p)γ exclusive reaction in the nucleon resonance region, at backward angles. Results are presented for the W-dependence at fixed Q²=1 GeV² and for the Q² dependence at fixed W near 1.5 GeV. The VCS data show resonant structures in the first and second resonance regions. The observed Q² dependence is smooth. The measured ratio of H(e, e^'p)γ to H(e, e^'p)π⁰ cross sections emphasizes the different sensitivity of these two reactions to the various nucleon resonances. Finally, when compared to real Compton scattering (RCS) at high energy and large angles, our VCS data at the highest W (1.8-1.9 GeV) show a striking Q² independence, which may suggest a transition to a perturbative scattering mechanism at the quark level.

The helicity amplitudes of the electroexcitation of the Roper resonance are extracted for 1.7<Q²<4.5  GeV² from recent high precision JLab-CLAS cross section and longitudinally polarized beam asymmetry data for π⁺ electroproduction on protons at W=1.15-1.69 GeV. The analysis is made using two approaches, dispersion relations and a unitary isobar model, which give consistent Q² behavior of the helicity amplitudes for the γ^*p→N(1440)P₁₁ transition. It is found that the transverse helicity amplitude A_1/2, which is large and negative at Q²=0, becomes large and positive at Q²≃2  GeV², and then drops slowly with Q². The longitudinal helicity amplitude S_1/2, which was previously found from CLAS e→p→epπ⁰,enπ⁺ data to be large and positive at Q²=0.4,0.65  GeV², drops with Q². Available model predictions for γ^*p→N(1440)P₁₁ allow us to conclude that these results provide strong evidence in favor of N(1440)P₁₁ as a first radial excitation of the 3q ground state. The results of the present paper also confirm the conclusion of our previous analysis for Q²<1 GeV² that the presentation of N(1440)P₁₁ as a q³G hybrid state is ruled out.

We present a measurement of the spin-dependent cross sections for the ³He→(e→,e^′)X reaction in the quasielastic and resonance regions at a four-momentum transfer 0.1≤Q²≤0.9  GeV². The spin-structure functions have been extracted and used to evaluate the nuclear Burkhardt-Cottingham and extended Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn sum rules for the first time. The data are also compared to an impulse approximation calculation and an exact three-body Faddeev calculation in the quasielastic region.

The (W,Q²) dependence of the ratio of inclusive electron scattering cross sections for ¹⁵N/¹²C was determined in the kinematic ranges 0.8<W<2 GeV and 0.2<Q²<1 GeV² using 2.285 GeV electrons and the CLAS detector at Jefferson Lab. The ratios exhibit only slight resonance structure, in agreement with a simple phenomenological model and an extrapolation of deep-inelastic scattering ratios to low Q². Ratios of ⁴He/¹²C using 1.6 to 2.5 GeV electrons were measured with very high statistical precision and were used to correct for He in the N and C targets. The (W,Q²) dependence of the ⁴He/¹²C ratios is in good agreement with that of the phenomenological model and exhibit significant resonance structure centered at W=0.94,1.23, and 1.5 GeV.

The exclusive electroproduction process e→p→e^'nπ⁺ was measured in the range of the photon virtuality Q²=1.7-4.5 GeV², and the invariant mass range for the nπ⁺ system of W=1.15-1.7 GeV using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer. For the first time, these kinematics are probed in exclusive π⁺ production from protons with nearly full coverage in the azimuthal and polar angles of the nπ⁺ center-of-mass system. The nπ⁺ channel has particular sensitivity to the isospin ½ excited nucleon states, and together with the pπ⁰ final state will serve to determine the transition form factors of a large number of resonances. The largest discrepancy between these results and present modes was seen in the σ_LT^' structure function. In this experiment, 31,295 cross section and 4,184 asymmetry data points were measured. Because of the large volume of data, only a reduced set of structure functions and Legendre polynomial moments can be presented that are obtained in model-independent fits to the differential cross sections.

A high-resolution (σ_instr.=1.5 MeV) search for narrow states (Γ<10 MeV) with masses of M_x≈1500–1850 MeV in ep→e^′K⁺X,e^′K^-X, and e^′π⁺X electroproduction at small angles and low Q² was performed. These states would be candidate partner states of the reported Θ⁺(1540) pentaquark. No statistically significant signal was observed in any of the channels at 90% C.L. Upper limits on forward production were determined to be between 0.8% and 4.9% of the Λ(1520) production cross section, depending on the channel and the assumed mass and width of the state.

We have measured the transverse asymmetry A_T^' in the quasielastic ³He→(e→,e^') process with high precision at Q² values from 0.1 to 0.6  (GeV/c)². The neutron magnetic form factor G_Mⁿ was extracted at Q² values of 0.1 and 0.2  (GeV/c)² using a nonrelativistic Faddeev calculation which includes both final-state interactions (FSI) and meson-exchange currents (MEC). Theoretical uncertainties due to the FSI and MEC effects were constrained with a precision measurement of the spin-dependent asymmetry in the threshold region of ³He→(e→,e^'). We also extracted the neutron magnetic form factor G_Mⁿ at Q² values of 0.3 to 0.6  (GeV/c)² based on plane wave impulse approximation calculations.

New measurements of the spin structure functions of the proton and deuteron g₁^p(x,Q²) and g₁^d(x,Q²) in the nucleon resonance region are compared with extrapolations of target-mass-corrected next-to-leading-order (NLO) QCD fits to higher energy data. Averaged over the entire resonance region (W<2 GeV), the data and QCD fits are in good agreement in both magnitude and Q² dependence for Q²>1.7 GeV²/c². This “global” duality appears to result from cancellations among the prominent “local” resonance regions: in particular strong σ_3/2 contributions in the Δ(1232) region appear to be compensated by strong σ_1/2 contributions in the resonance region centered on 1.5 GeV. These results are encouraging for the extension of NLO QCD fits to lower W and Q² than have been used previously.

We measured angular distributions of differential cross section, beam analyzing power, and recoil polarization for neutral pion electroproduction at Q²=1.0 (GeV/c)² in 10 bins of 1.17≤W≤1.35 GeV across the Δ resonance. A total of 16 independent response functions were extracted, of which 12 were observed for the first time. Comparisons with recent model calculations show that response functions governed by real parts of interference products are determined relatively well near the physical mass, W=M_Δ≈1.232 GeV, but the variation among models is large for response functions governed by imaginary parts, and for both types of response functions, the variation increases rapidly with W>M_Δ. We performed a multipole analysis that adjusts suitable subsets of ℓ_π≤2 amplitudes with higher partial waves constrained by baseline models. This analysis provides both real and imaginary parts. The fitted multipole amplitudes are nearly model independent—there is very little sensitivity to the choice of baseline model or truncation scheme. By contrast, truncation errors in the traditional Legendre analysis of N→Δ quadrupole ratios are not negligible. Parabolic fits to the W dependence around M_Δ for the multiple analysis gives values for Re(S₁₊/M₁₊)=(-6.61±0.18)% and Re(E₁₊/M₁₊)=(-2.87±0.19)% for the pπ⁰ channel at W=1.232 GeV and Q²=1.0 (GeV/c)² that are distinctly larger than those from the Legendre analysis of the same data. Similarly, the multipole analysis gives Re(S₀₊/M₁₊)=(+7.1±0.8)% at W=1.232 GeV, consistent with recent models, while the traditional Legendre analysis gives the opposite sign because its truncation errors are quite severe.

We report new measurements of the parity-violating asymmetry A_PV in elastic scattering of 3 GeV electrons off hydrogen and ⁴He targets with ⟨θ_lab⟩≈6.0°. The ⁴He result is A_PV=(+6.40±0.23(stat)±0.12(syst))×10^-6. The hydrogen result is A_PV=(-1.58±0.12(stat)±0.04(syst))×10^-6. These results significantly improve constraints on the electric and magnetic strange form factors G_E^s and G_M^s. We extract G_E^s=0.002±0.014±0.007 at ⟨Q²⟩=0.077  GeV², and G_E^s+0.09G_M^s=0.007±0.011±0.006 at ⟨Q²⟩=0.109  GeV², providing new limits on the role of strange quarks in the nucleon charge and magnetization distributions.

The longitudinal target-spin asymmetry A_UL for the exclusive electroproduction of high-energy photons was measured for the first time in ep→→e^′pγ. The data have been accumulated at JLab with the CLAS spectrometer using 5.7 GeV electrons and a longitudinally polarized NH₃ target. A significant azimuthal angular dependence was observed, resulting from the interference of the deeply virtual Compton scattering and Bethe-Heitler processes. The amplitude of the sin⁡ϕ moment is 0.252±0.042^stat±0.020^sys. Theoretical calculations are in good agreement with the magnitude and the kinematic dependence of the target-spin asymmetry, which is sensitive to the generalized parton distributions H˜ and H.

Inclusive electron scattering off the deuteron has been measured to extract the deuteron structure function F₂ with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS) at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The measurement covers the entire resonance region from the quasielastic peak up to the invariant mass of the final-state hadronic system W≃2.7 GeV with four-momentum transfers Q² from 0.4 to 6 (GeV/c)². These data are complementary to previous measurements of the proton structure function F₂ and cover a similar two-dimensional region of Q² and Bjorken variable x. Determination of the deuteron F₂ over a large x interval including the quasielastic peak as a function of Q², together with the other world data, permit a direct evaluation of the structure function moments for the first time. By fitting the Q² evolution of these moments with an OPE-based twist expansion we have obtained a separation of the leading twist and higher twist terms. The observed Q² behavior of the higher twist contribution suggests a partial cancelation of different higher twists entering into the expansion with opposite signs. This cancelation, found also in the proton moments, is a manifestation of the “duality” phenomenon in the F₂ structure function.

High-statistics cross sections for the reactions γ+p→K++Λ and γ+p→K++Σ0 have been measured using CLAS at Jefferson Lab for center-of-mass energies W between 1.6 and 2.53 GeV, and for -0.85<cosθK+c.m.<+0.95. In the K+Λ channel we confirm a resonance-like structure near W=1.9 GeV at backward kaon angles. The position and width of this structure change with angle, indicating that more than one resonance is likely playing a role. The K+Λ channel at forward angles and all energies is well described by a t-channel scaling characteristic of Regge exchange, whereas the same scaling applied to the K+Σ0 channel is less successful. Several existing theoretical models are compared to the data, but none provide a good representation of the results.

The ratios of inclusive electron scattering cross sections of ⁴He, ¹²C, and ⁵⁶Fe to ³He have been measured at 1<x_B<3. At Q²>1.4  GeV², the ratios exhibit two separate plateaus, at 1.5<x_B<2 and at x_B>2.25. This pattern is predicted by models that include 2- and 3-nucleon short-range correlations (SRC). Relative to A=3, the per-nucleon probabilities of 3-nucleon SRC are 2.3, 3.1, and 4.4 times larger for A=4, 12, and 56. This is the first measurement of 3-nucleon SRC probabilities in nuclei.

We have measured the parity-violating electroweak asymmetry in the elastic scattering of polarized electrons from ⁴He at an average scattering angle ⟨θ_lab⟩=5.7° and a four-momentum transfer Q²=0.091  GeV². From these data, for the first time, the strange electric form factor of the nucleon G_E^s can be isolated. The measured asymmetry of A_PV=(6.72±0.84_(stat)±0.21_(syst))×10^-6 yields a value of G_E^s=-0.038±0.042_(stat)±0.010_(syst), consistent with zero.

Beam-helicity asymmetries for the two-pion-photoproduction reaction γ→p→pπ⁺π^- have been studied for the first time in the resonance region for center-of-mass energies between 1.35 and 2.30 GeV. The experiment was performed at Jefferson Lab with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer using circularly polarized tagged photons incident on an unpolarized hydrogen target. Beam-helicity-dependent angular distributions of the final-state particles were measured. The large cross-section asymmetries exhibit strong sensitivity to the kinematics and dynamics of the reaction. The data are compared with the results of various phenomenological model calculations, and show that these models currently do not provide an adequate description for the behavior of this new observable.

We present the first measurement of the Q² dependence of the neutron spin structure function g₂ⁿ at five kinematic points covering 0.57  (GeV/c)²≤Q²≤1.34  (GeV/c)² at x≃0.2. Though the naive quark-parton model predicts g₂=0, nonzero values occur in more realistic models of the nucleon which include quark-gluon correlations, finite quark masses, or orbital angular momentum. When scattering from a noninteracting quark, g₂ⁿ can be predicted using next-to-leading order fits to world data for g₁ⁿ. Deviations from this prediction provide an opportunity to examine QCD dynamics in nucleon structure. Our results show a positive deviation from this prediction at lower Q², indicating that contributions such as quark-gluon interactions may be important. Precision data obtained for g₁ⁿ are consistent with next-to-leading order fits to world data.

We measured angular distributions of recoil-polarization response functions for neutral pion electroproduction for W=1.23  GeV at Q²=1.0  (GeV/c)², obtaining 14 separated response functions plus 2 Rosenbluth combinations; of these, 12 have been observed for the first time. Dynamical models do not describe quantities governed by imaginary parts of interference products well, indicating the need for adjusting magnitudes and phases for nonresonant amplitudes. We performed a nearly model-independent multipole analysis and obtained values for Re (S₁₊/M₁₊)=-(6.84±0.15)% and Re (E₁₊/M₁₊)=-(2.91±0.19)% that are distinctly different from those from the traditional Legendre analysis based upon M₁₊ dominance and ℓ_π≤1 truncation.

This paper was published online on 20 May 2005 without several of the authors’ corrections incorporated. Equation (13) has been replaced. The captions of Figs. 16–18 have also been replaced. Typographical errors on pages 4, 6, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, and 24 have all been corrected. The paper has been corrected as of 8 June 2005. The text is correct in the printed version of the journal.

The electromagnetic decays of the Σ⁰(1385) and Λ(1520) hyperons were studied in photon-induced reactions γp→K⁺Λ(1116)γ in the Large Acceptance Spectrometer detector at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. We report the first observation of the radiative decay of the Σ⁰(1385) and a measurement of the Λ(1520) radiative decay width. For the Σ⁰(1385)→Λ(1116)γ transition, we measured a partial width of 479±120(stat)_-100⁺⁸¹(sys)  keV, larger than all of the existing model predictions. For the Λ(1520)→Λ(1116)γ transition, we obtained a partial width of 167±43(stat)_-12⁺²⁶(sys)  keV.