Based on recent COSY-11 results of measurements of total cross sections for the quasi-free pn-->pn eta reaction we determine the isospin I=0 component of the total cross section for the NN-->NN eta reaction down to the threshold. We show that the energy dependence of the total cross section ratios {σ_{I=0}(pn-->pn eta)}/{σ(pp-->pp eta)} and σ_{I=0}(pn-->pn eta)}/{σ(pn-->d eta)} can be described using the Faldt and Wilkin analitical parametrization of the nucleon-nucleon final state interaction.
A comparison of the close-to-threshold total cross section for the eta prime production in pp --> pp eta prime and pn --> pn eta prime reactions constitutes a tool to investigate the eta prime meson structure and the reaction mechanism in the channels of isospin I=0 and I=1 and may provide insight into the flavour-singlet (perhaps also into gluonium) content of the eta prime meson. In this contribution we present preliminary results of measurement of the quasi-free production of the eta prime meson in the proton-neutron collisions conducted using the COSY-11 facility.
The upper limit of the total cross section for quasi-free pn -> pn eta-prime reaction has been determined in the excess energy range near the kinematic threshold. The measurement has been carried out at the COSY-11 detection setup using a proton beam and a deuteron cluster target. The identification of the eta-prime meson has been performed using the missing mass technique. The energy dependence of the upper limit of the cross section is extracted with a fixed proton beam momentum of p_beam}=3.35GeV/c and exploiting the Fermi momenta of nucleons inside the deuteron. The data cover a range of c…
The production of neutral pions and eta mesons in collisions of light, intermediate-mass, and heavy nuclei at beam energies between 0.8 A GeV and 2.0 A GeV is discussed in the framework of a model assuming equilibrium at hadrochemical and thermal freeze-out, respectively. From the relative particle yields temperatures of 56-90 MeV and baryon chemical potentials of 780-675 MeV are deduced at chemical freeze-out. Midrapidity spectra of neutral pions and eta mesons are consistent with the obtained temperatures if, in addition, the measured transverse expansion of the collision zone is taken into …
Due to their short life-time, flavour-neutral mesons cannot be utilized as free secondary beams or targets, and therefore a study of their interaction with nucleons is not possible via direct scattering experiments. This interaction is, however, accessible via its influence on the energy dependence - and on the phase space distributions of the cross sections for reactions in which these mesons are produced. In case of the p p --> p p eta reaction the experimentally determined distributions of the differential cross sections close to the production threshold cannot be described by taking into a…
In a series of experiments coherent and quasifree eta-photoproduction from light nuclei (4He, 3He, 2H) was investigated with the TAPS-detector at the Mainz MAMI-accelerator. The experiments were motivated by two different subjects: the determination of the isospin structure of the electromagnetic excitation of the S11(1535) resonance and the study of the eta-nucleon and eta-nucleus interaction at small momenta. The results for the deuteron and 4He are summarized and first preliminary results for 3He are presented.
We shortly discuss results on the isospin dependence of the eta-prime production cross section in nucleon-nucleon collisions, results of comparative analysis of the invariant mass distributions for the pp-->pp eta-prime and pp-->pp eta reactions, and we present the value of the total width of the eta-prime meson as derived directly from the mass distribution measured with the mass resolution of 0.3 MeV/c^2.
We shortly discuss results on the isospin dependence of the eta-prime production cross section in nucleon-nucleon collisions, results of comparative analysis of the invariant mass distributions for the pp-->pp eta-prime and pp-->pp eta reactions, and we present the value of the total width of the eta-prime meson as derived directly from the mass distribution measured with the mass resolution of 0.3~MeV/c^2.
We present results on the isospin dependence of the eta-prime production cross section in nucleon-nucleon collisions, as well as the results of comparative analysis of the invariant mass distributions for the pp-->pp eta-prime and pp-->pp eta reactions in the context of the proton-eta and proton-eta-prime interaction. Additionally, the value of the total width of the eta-prime is reported as derived directly from the measurement of the mass distribution and an explanation of the experimental technique used in order to achieve a precision about an order of magnitude better then former experimen…
Chemical and thermal freeze-out of the hadronic fireball formed in symmetric collisions of light, intermediate-mass, and heavy nuclei at beam energies between 0.8A GeV and 2.0A GeV are discussed in terms of an equilibrated, isospin-symmetric ideal hadron gas with grand-canonical baryon-number conservation. For each collision system the baryochemical potential mu_B and the chemical freeze-out temperature T_c are deduced from the inclusive neutral pion and eta yields which are augmented by interpolated data on deuteron production. With increasing beam energy mu_B drops from 800 MeV to 650 MeV, w…
Shear viscosity (eta) of QCD in the hadronic phase is computed by the coupled Boltzmann equations of pions and nucleons in low temperatures and low baryon number densities. The eta to entropy density ratio eta/s maps out the nuclear gas-liquid phase transition by forming a valley tracing the phase transition line in the temperature-chemical potential plane. When the phase transition turns into a crossover, the eta/s valley gradually disappears. We suspect the general feature for a first-order phase transition is that eta/s has a discontinuity in the bottom of the eta/s valley. The discontinuit…
An introduction to the physics of eta and eta' meson decays is given. A historical account of the discovery of the mesons is presented. It is followed by an overview and classification of the common decay modes and the relevance of the mesons for modern hadron and particle physics. In more detail the hadronic decay modes are discussed and in particular some interesting features of the eta-> 3pi0 decay are presented. The last section briefly reviews and compares reactions used to produce the eta and eta' mesons for the studies of their decays.
The Chew-Mandelstam parameterization, which has been used extensively in the two-body hadronic sector, is generalized in this exploratory study to the electromagnetic sector by simultaneous fits to the pion- and eta-photoproduction S-wave multipole amplitudes for center-of-mass energies from the pion threshold through 1.61 GeV. We review the Chew-Mandelstam parameterization in detail to clarify the theoretical content of the SAID hadronic amplitude analysis and to place the proposed, generalized SAID electromagnetic amplitudes in the context of earlier employed parameterized forms. The paramet…
The isospin-breaking decay eta {\to} 3pi is an ideal tool to extract information on light quark mass ratios from experiment. For a precise determination, however, a detailed description of the Dalitz plot distribution is necessary. In that respect, in particular the slope parameter alpha of the neutral decay channel causes some concern, since the one-loop prediction from chiral perturbation theory misses the experimental value substantially. We use the modified non-relativistic effective field-theory, a dedicated framework to analyze final-state interactions beyond one loop including isospin-b…
The $π^-/π^+$ ratio is examined as a function of isospin asymmetry and beam energy for central collisions induced by neutron-rich nuclei within an isospin-dependent hadronic transport model. The $π^-/π^+$ ratio is found to increase with the isospin asymmetry, but decrease with the beam energy of the reaction. For neutron-rich systems, such as, $^{124}Sn+^{124}Sn$ and $^{132}Sn+^{124}Sn$, the sensitivity of $π^-/π^+$ ratio to nuclear symmetry energy is almost beam energy independent.
PHENIX and STAR data on the intercept parameter of the two-pion Bose-Einstein correlation functions in sqrt(s_{NN}) = 200 GeV Au+Au collisions are analyzed in terms of different models of hadronic multiplicities. To describe this combined PHENIX and STAR dataset, an in-medium eta' mass reduction of at least 200 MeV is needed, at the 99.9 % confidence level in the considered model class. Such a significant eta' mass modification may indicate the restoration of the U_A(1) symmetry in a hot and dense hadronic matter and the return of the 9th "prodigal" Goldstone boson.
We study the elliptic flow coefficient v_2(eta,b) in Au+Au collisions at sqrt(s)=200 A GeV as a function of pseudorapidity eta and impact parameter b. Using a hybrid approach which combines early ideal fluid dynamical evolution with late hadronic rescattering, we demonstrate strong dissipative effects from the hadronic rescattering stage on the elliptic flow. With Glauber model initial conditions, hadronic dissipation is shown to be sufficient to fully explain the differences between measured v_2 values and ideal hydrodynamic predictions. Initial conditions based on the Color Glass Condensate …
The Wide Angle Shower Apparatus (WASA) has been transferred from the storage ring CELSIUS (TSL, Uppsala, Sweden) to the cooler synchrotron COSY (FZ Juelich, Germany). In this presentation, the status and planning of the WASAatCOSY project are reported. The main physics aspects are rare decays of eta and eta' mesons and isospin violation in deuteron-deuteron interactions.
In high energy heavy ion collisions a hot and dense medium is formed, where the U_A(1) or chiral symmetry may temporarily be restored. As a consequence, the mass of the eta'(958) mesons may be reduced to its quark model value, and the abundance of eta' mesons at low p_T may be enhanced by more than a factor of 10. The intercept parameter lambda_* of the charged pion Bose--Einstein correlations provides a sensitive observable of the possibly enhanced eta' abundance. We have analyzed lambda_*(m_T) data from sqrt(s(NN))=200 GeV central Au+Au reactions measured at the BNL Relativistic Heavy Ion Co…
Based on the framework of an extended multiphase transport model with mean-field potentials in both the partonic phase and the hadronic phase, we explain the elliptic flow difference between $π^+$ and $π^-$ in the beam-energy scan program at the relativistic heavy-ion collider by incorporating the vector-isovector potential for quarks and antiquarks with different isospins. It is found that the isospin splitting of pion elliptic flow favors a strong vector-isovector interaction, and thus serves as a probe of the quark matter equation of state as well as the QCD phase structure at finite baryon…
Pure hadronic compact stars, above a limiting value ($\approx$1.6 M$_\odot$) of their gravitational masses, to which predictions of most of other equations of state (EoSs) are restricted, can be reached from the equation of state (EoS) obtained using DDM3Y effective interaction. This effective interaction is found to be quite successful in providing unified description of elastic and inelastic scattering, various radioactivities and nuclear matter properties. We present a systematic study of the properties of pure hadronic compact stars. The $β$-equilibrated neutron star matter using this EoS …
The phase transition of hadronic to quark matter at high baryon and isospin density is analyzed. Relativistic mean field models are used to describe hadronic matter, and the MIT bag model is adopted for quark matter. The boundaries of the mixed phase and the related critical points for symmetric and asymmetric matter are obtained. Due to the different symmetry term in the two phases, isospin effects appear to be rather significant. With increasing isospin asymmetry the binodal transition line of the (T,ρ_B) diagram is lowered to a region accessible through heavy ion collisions in the energy ra…
We analyse data on forward eta-meson photoproduction off a proton target and extract the eta to gamma gamma decay width utilizing the Primakoff effect. The hadronic amplitude that enters into our analysis is strongly constrained because it is fixed from a global fit to available gamma p to p eta data for differential cross sections and polarizations. We compare our results with present information on the two-photon eta-decay from the literature. We provide predictions for future PrimEx experiments at Jefferson Laboratory in order to motivate further studies.
The $ηN$ final state is isospin-selective and thus provides access to the spectrum of excited nucleons without being affected by excited $Δ$ states. To this end, the world database on eta photoproduction off the proton up to a center-of-mass energy of $E\sim 2.3$ GeV is analyzed, including data on differential cross sections, and single and double polarization observables. The resonance spectrum and its properties are determined in a combined analysis of eta and pion photoproduction off the proton together with the reactions $πN\to πN$, $ηN$, $KΛ$ and $KΣ$. For the analysis, the so-called Jüli…
