We report measurements of electron pair production in elementary p+p and d+p reactions at 1.25 GeV/u with the HADES spectrometer. For the first time, the electron pairs were reconstructed for n+p ...reactions by detecting the proton spectator from the deuteron breakup. We find that the yield of electron pairs with invariant mass Me+e−>0.15 GeV/c2 is about an order of magnitude larger in n+p reactions as compared to p+p. A comparison to model calculations demonstrates that the production mechanism is not sufficiently described yet. The electron pair spectra measured in C+C reactions are compatible with a superposition of elementary n+p and p+p collisions, leaving little room for additional electron pair sources in such light collision systems.
The ω and η′-nucleus interaction has been studied in photoproduction reactions off C and Nb targets, using the CBELSA/TAPS detector system. Transparency ratio measurements provide information on the ...inelastic cross section and in-medium width of mesons and thereby on the imaginary part of the meson-nucleus potential. The real part of the optical potential can be deduced from measurements of the excitation function and momentum distribution which are sensitive to the sign and depth of the potential. Data taken on a C and Nb target have been analysed to determine the real and the imaginary part of the ω- and η′-nucleus optical potential. The momentum dependence of the imaginary part of both mesons is presented and discussed. The results are compared to previous experimental results and to model calculations assuming different scenarios. The data are consistent with a weakly attractive potential for both mesons. The relatively small in-medium width of the η′ meson encourages the search for η′ bound states.
Recent experiments studying the meson–nucleus interaction to extract meson–nucleus potentials are reviewed. The real part of the potentials quantifies whether the interaction is attractive or ...repulsive while the imaginary part describes the meson absorption in nuclei. The review is focused on mesons which are sufficiently long-lived to potentially form meson–nucleus quasi-bound states. The presentation is confined to meson production off nuclei in photon-, pion-, proton-, and light-ion induced reactions and heavy-ion collisions at energies near the production threshold. Tools to extract the potential parameters are presented. In most cases, the real part of the potential is determined by comparing measured meson momentum distributions or excitation functions with collision model or transport model calculations. The imaginary part is extracted from transparency ratio measurements. Results on K+,K0,K−,η,η′,ω, and ϕ mesons are presented and compared with theoretical predictions. The interaction of K+ and K0 mesons with nuclei is found to be weakly repulsive, while the K−,η,η′,ω and ϕ meson–nucleus potentials are attractive, however, with widely different strengths. Because of meson absorption in the nuclear medium the imaginary parts of the meson–nucleus potentials are all negative, again with a large spread. An outlook on planned experiments in the charm sector is given. In view of the determined potential parameters, the criteria and chances for experimentally observing meson–nucleus quasi-bound states are discussed. The most promising candidates appear to be the η and η′ mesons.
About 10 μs after the Big Bang, the universe was filled—in addition to photons and leptons—with strong-interaction matter consisting of quarks and gluons, which transitioned to hadrons at ...temperatures close to kT = 150 MeV and densities several times higher than those found in nuclei. This quantum chromodynamics (QCD) matter can be created in the laboratory as a transient state by colliding heavy ions at relativistic energies. The different phases in which QCD matter may exist depend for example on temperature, pressure or baryochemical potential, and can be probed by studying the emission of electromagnetic radiation. Electron–positron pairs emerge from the decay of virtual photons, which immediately decouple from the strong interaction, and thus provide information about the properties of QCD matter at various stages. Here, we report the observation of virtual photon emission from baryon-rich QCD matter. The spectral distribution of the electron–positron pairs is nearly exponential, providing evidence for a source of temperature in excess of 70 MeV with constituents whose properties have been modified, thus reflecting peculiarities of strong-interaction QCD matter. Its bulk properties are similar to the dense matter formed in the final state of a neutron star merger, as apparent from recent multimessenger observation.
Hadron modifications in nuclear matter are discussed in connection to chiral symmetry restoration and/or hadronic many body effects. Experiments with photon, proton and heavy ion beams are used to ...probe properties of hadrons embedded in nuclear matter at different temperatures and densities. Most of the information has been gathered for the light vector mesons ρ ω and ø. HADES is a second generation experiment operating at GSI with the main aim to study in-medium modifications by means of dielectron production at the SIS18/Bevelac energy range. Large acceptance and excellent particle identification capabilities allows also for measurements of strangeness production. These abilities combined with the variety of beams provided by the SIS18 allow for a characterization of properties of the dense baryonic matter properties created in heavy ion collisions at these energies. A review of recent experimental results obtained by HADES is presented, with main emphasis on hadron properties in nuclear matter.
The reaction gammap-->pi(+)pi(0)n has been measured at MAMI for photon energies up to 820 MeV. Invariant mass spectra of the particles in the final state (pi(+)n), (pi(0)n), (pi(+)pi(0)) have been ...determined for several bins of incident photon energy. Differences in pi(+)pi(0) and simultaneously measured pi(0)pi(0) invariant mass distributions are assigned to a rho branch of the D13(1520) nucleon resonance.
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