The photo-production of ϕ mesons from Li, C, Al, and Cu at forward angles has been measured at Eγ=1.5–2.4GeV. The number of events for incoherent ϕ photo-production is found to have a target mass ...number dependence of A0.72±0.07 in the kinematical region of |t|⩽0.6GeV2/c2. The total cross section of the ϕ–nucleon interaction, σϕN, has been estimated as 35−11+17mb using the A-dependence of the ϕ photo-production yield and a Glauber-type multiple scattering theory. This value is much larger than σϕN in free space, suggesting that the ϕ properties might change in the nuclear medium.
A series of experiments have been carried out by using a linearly polarized photon beam at the SPring-8/LEPS facility from December 2000 to June 2001. The photon beam asymmetries and differential ...cross sections of the p(
γ
,K
+)Λ and p(
γγ
, K
+)Σ
0 reactions have been measured in the photon energy range from 1.5 GeV to 2.4 GeV at forward angles, 0° <
Θ
cm
K
+
< 60°. We report preliminary results of the photon beam asymmetries.
We have constructed a new laser-Compton-scattering facility, called the LEPS2 beamline, at the 8 GeV electron storage ring, SPring-8. This facility provides a linearly polarized photon beam in a ...tagged energy range of 1.3–2.4 GeV. Thanks to a small divergence of the low-emittance storage-ring electrons, the tagged photon beam has a size (σ) suppressed to about 4 mm even after it travels about 130 m to the experimental building that is independent of the storage ring building and contains large detector systems. This beamline is designed to achieve a photon beam intensity higher than that of the first laser-Compton-scattering beamline at SPring-8 by adopting the simultaneous injection of up to four high-power laser beams and increasing a transmittance for the long photon-beam path up to about 77%. The new beamline is under operation for hadron photoproduction experiments.
A search for the K−pp bound state (the lightest kaonic nucleus) has been performed using the γd→K+π−X reaction at Eγ=1.5–2.4 GeV at LEPS/SPring-8. The differential cross section of the K+π− ...photo-production off deuterium (d2σ/dcosθK+lab/dcosθπ−lab) has been measured for the first time in this energy region. A peak structure was searched for in the inclusive missing mass spectrum. A statistically significant peak structure was not observed in the region from 2.22 to 2.36 GeV/c2. The upper limits of the differential cross section of the K−pp bound state production were determined to be (0.17–0.55), (0.55–1.7) and (1.1–2.9) μb at 95% confidence level with the assumed widths of 20 MeV, 60 MeV and 100 MeV.