We report on the measurement of the γp→J/ψp cross section from E_{γ}=11.8 GeV down to the threshold at 8.2 GeV using a tagged photon beam with the GlueX experiment. We find that the total cross ...section falls toward the threshold less steeply than expected from two-gluon exchange models. The differential cross section dσ/dt has an exponential slope of 1.67±0.39 GeV^{-2} at 10.7 GeV average energy. The LHCb pentaquark candidates P_{c}^{+} can be produced in the s channel of this reaction. We see no evidence for them and set model-dependent upper limits on their branching fractions B(P_{c}^{+}→J/ψp) and cross sections σ(γp→P_{c}^{+})×B(P_{c}^{+}→J/ψp).
The atomic nucleus is composed of two different kinds of fermions: protons and neutrons. If the protons and neutrons did not interact, the Pauli exclusion principle would force the majority of ...fermions (usually neutrons) to have a higher average momentum. Our high-energy electron-scattering measurements using 12C, 27Al, 56Fe, and 208Pb targets show that even in heavy, neutron-rich nuclei, short-range interactions between the fermions form correlated high-momentum neutron-proton pairs. Thus, in neutron-rich nuclei, protons have a greater probability than neutrons to have momentum greater than the Fermi momentum. This finding has implications ranging from nuclear few-body systems to neutron stars and may also be observable experimentally in two-spin–state, ultracold atomic gas systems.
In the past two decades, deeply virtual Compton scattering of electrons has been successfully used to advance our knowledge of the partonic structure of the free proton and investigate correlations ...between the transverse position and the longitudinal momentum of quarks inside the nucleon. Meanwhile, the structure of bound nucleons in nuclei has been studied in inclusive deep-inelastic lepton scattering experiments off nuclear targets, showing a significant difference in longitudinal momentum distribution of quarks inside the bound nucleon, known as the EMC effect. In this Letter, we report the first beam spin asymmetry (BSA) measurement of exclusive deeply virtual Compton scattering off a proton bound in ^{4}He. The data used here were accumulated using a 6 GeV longitudinally polarized electron beam incident on a pressurized ^{4}He gaseous target placed within the CLAS spectrometer in Hall-B at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. The azimuthal angle (ϕ) dependence of the BSA was studied in a wide range of virtual photon and scattered proton kinematics. The Q^{2}, x_{B}, and t dependencies of the BSA on the bound proton are compared with those on the free proton. In the whole kinematical region of our measurements, the BSA on the bound proton is smaller by 20% to 40%, indicating possible medium modification of its partonic structure.
A measurement of the electroproduction of photons off protons in the deeply inelastic regime was performed at Jefferson Lab using a nearly 6 GeV electron beam, a longitudinally polarized proton ...target, and the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer. Target-spin asymmetries for ep→e^{'}p^{'}γ events, which arise from the interference of the deeply virtual Compton scattering and the Bethe-Heitler processes, were extracted over the widest kinematics in Q^{2}, x_{B}, t, and ϕ, for 166 four-dimensional bins. In the framework of generalized parton distributions, at leading twist the t dependence of these asymmetries provides insight into the spatial distribution of the axial charge of the proton, which appears to be concentrated in its center. These results also bring important and necessary constraints for the existing parametrizations of chiral-even generalized parton distributions.
We report a measurement of a beam–target double-polarisation observable (E) for the γ→n→(p)→K+Σ−(p) reaction. The data were obtained impinging the circularly-polarised energy-tagged photon beam of ...Hall B at Jefferson Lab on a longitudinally-polarised frozen-spin hydrogen deuteride (HD) nuclear target. The E observable for an effective neutron target was determined for centre-of-mass energies 1.70≤W≤2.30 GeV, with reaction products detected over a wide angular acceptance by the CLAS spectrometer. These new double-polarisation data give unique constraints on the strange decays of excited neutron states. Inclusion of the new data within the Bonn-Gatchina theoretical model results in significant changes for the extracted photocouplings of a number of established nucleon resonances. Possible improvements in the PWA description of the experimental data with additional “missing” resonance states, including the N(2120)3/2− resonance, are also quantified.
First results from the longitudinally polarized frozen-spin target (FROST) program are reported. The double-polarization observable E, for the reaction γ→p→→π+n, has been measured using a circularly ...polarized tagged-photon beam, with energies from 0.35 to 2.37 GeV. The final-state pions were detected with the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer in Hall B at the Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility. These polarization data agree fairly well with previous partial-wave analyses at low photon energies. Over much of the covered energy range, however, significant deviations are observed, particularly in the high-energy region where high-L multipoles contribute. The data have been included in new multipole analyses resulting in updated nucleon resonance parameters. We report updated fits from the Bonn–Gatchina, Jülich–Bonn, and SAID groups.
The use of a method developed in the CLAS collaboration (Jefferson Lab, USA) to extract events of quasi-real photoproduction on nuclei from experimental data of electroproduction, as applied to the ...reaction of near-threshold photoproduction of the J/ψ-meson is described in this paper. Experimental data of electroproduction on a liquid hydrogen target, which was obtained on CLAS12 experimental setup, were analyzed. The photoproduction of e
+
e
–
pairs were studied from ep → p'e
+
e
–
X reaction, where e
+
e
–
lepton pair is formed during the decay of the vector meson or virtual photon, p' is the recoil proton. The method of selection of fully exclusive of the final state e
+
e
–
p'(e') reaction is given, where the lepton pair, e
+
e
–
is formed during the decay of the J/ψ-meson, and the kinematics of the scattered electron, e', is derived from the analysis of the missing momentum of the system.
The quark structure of the f_{2}(1270) meson has, for many years, been assumed to be a pure quark-antiquark (qqover ¯) resonance with quantum numbers J^{PC}=2^{++}. Recently, it was proposed that the ...f_{2}(1270) is a molecular state made from the attractive interaction of two ρ mesons. Such a state would be expected to decay strongly to final states with charged pions due to the dominant decay ρ→π^{+}π^{-}, whereas decay to two neutral pions would likely be suppressed. Here, we measure for the first time the reaction γp→π^{0}π^{0}p, using the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer detector at Jefferson Lab for incident beam energies between 3.6 and 5.4 GeV. Differential cross sections, dσ/dt, for f_{2}(1270) photoproduction are extracted with good precision due to low backgrounds and are compared to theoretical calculations.
We report the first measurement of the transverse momentum dependence of double-spin asymmetries in semi-inclusive production of pions in deep-inelastic scattering off the longitudinally polarized ...proton. Data have been obtained using a polarized electron beam of 5.7 GeV with the CLAS detector at the Jefferson Lab (JLab). Modulations of single spin asymmetries over the azimuthal angle between lepton scattering and hadron production planes ϕ have been measured over a wide kinematic range in Bjorken x and virtual photon squared four-momentum Q2. A significant nonzero sin2ϕ single spin asymmetry was observed for the first time indicating strong spin-orbit correlations for transversely polarized quarks in the longitudinally polarized proton.