Search

Photoproduction of two neutral pions off the proton is studied using linearly polarized photons, and the polarization observables I-s and I-c are measured for the first time. These two observables are unique to multi-meson final states; they characterize correlations between the linear photon polarization and the direction of outgoing single particles in photoproduction of three-body final states. The I-s and I-c distributions suggest that, in the 1.8 to 2.0 GeV mass region, the N(1520) 3/2(-)pi intermediate state is reached with reaction dynamics consistent with a dominant J(P) = 3/2(+) wave. These data are included in the Bonn-Gatchina (BnGa) partial wave analysis which is based on a large variety of data; the analysis confirms a significant contribution from the reaction chain gamma p -> N(1900)3/2(+) -> N(1520)3/2(-)pi(0) -> p pi(0)pi(0). (C) 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

The reaction γ p → K S 0 Σ + is studied in the photon energy range from threshold. Linearly polarised photon beams from coherent bremsstrahlung enabled the first measurement of photon beam asymmetries in this reaction up to E γ = 1650 MeV . In addition, the recoil hyperon polarisation was determined through the asymmetry in the weak decay Σ + → p π 0 up to E γ = 2250 MeV . The data are compared to partial wave analyses, and the possible impact on the interpretation of a recently observed prominent structure in the cross section near the K ⁎ thresholds is discussed.

Reconstruction of neutrino-induced showers, initiated by neutral-current interactions, can extend the sensitivity of the ANTARES detector to all neutrino flavors. A major challenge in reconstructing showers is their selection from an overwhelming background of down-going atmospheric muons. We have developed a shower selection strategy in order to select up-going showers with high efficiency and purity. We have tuned the selection strategy on Monte-Carlo simulations containing the proper amount of background and atmospheric neutrino-induced showers. The obtained results indicate an efficiency of 21% with a purity better than 90% for the shower selection. We applied the selection strategy to ANTARES experimental data and observed a satisfactory performance of the discriminating variables. (C) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The γ + p → K 0 + Σ + photoproduction reaction is investigated in the energy region from threshold to E γ = 2250 MeV . The differential cross section exhibits increasing forward-peaking with energy, but only up to the K ⁎ threshold. Beyond, it suddenly returns to a flat distribution with the forward cross section dropping by a factor of four. In the total cross section a pronounced structure is observed between the K ⁎ Λ and K ⁎ Σ thresholds.

The photoproduction of η ′ -mesons off different nuclei has been measured with the CBELSA/TAPS detector system for incident photon energies between 1500–2200 MeV. The transparency ratio has been deduced and compared to theoretical calculations describing the propagation of η ′ -mesons in nuclei. The comparison indicates a width of the η ′ -meson of the order of Γ = 15 – 25 MeV at ρ = ρ 0 for an average momentum p η ′ = 1050 MeV / c , at which the η ′ -meson is produced in the nuclear rest frame. The inelastic η ′ N cross section is estimated to be 3–10 mb. Parameterizing the photoproduction cross section of η ′ -mesons by σ ( A ) = σ 0 A α , a value of α = 0.84 ± 0.03 has been deduced.

Charged particles and photons have been measured in central Pb + Pb collisions at 158 A GeV in a common (eta-phi)-phase space region in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The measured distributions have been analyzed to quantify the frequency with which phase space regions of varying sizes have either small or large neutral pion fraction. The measured results are compared with VENUS model simulated events and with mixed events. Events with both large and small charged-neutral fluctuations are observed to occur more frequently than expected statistically, as deduced from mixed events, or as predicted by model simulations, with the difference becoming more prominent with decreasing size of the A Delta eta-Delta phi region. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Several new methods for determining the depth of interaction (DOI) of annihilation photons in monolithic scintillator detectors with single-sided, multi-pixel readout are investigated. The aim is to develop a DOI decoding method that allows for practical implementation in a positron emission tomography system. Specifically, calibration data, obtained with perpendicularly incident gamma photons only, are being used. Furthermore, neither detector modifications nor a priori knowledge of the light transport and/or signal variances is required. For this purpose, a clustering approach is utilized in combination with different parameters correlated with the DOI, such as the degree of similarity to a set of reference light distributions, the measured intensity on the sensor pixel(s) closest to the interaction position and the peak intensity of the measured light distribution. The proposed methods were tested experimentally on a detector comprised of a 20 mm x 20 mm x 12 mm polished LYSO: Ce crystal coupled to a 4 x 4 multi-anode photomultiplier. The method based on the linearly interpolated measured intensities on the sensor pixels closest to the estimated (x, y)-coordinate outperformed the other methods, yielding DOI resolutions between similar to 1 and similar to 4.5 mm FWHM depending on the DOI, the (x, y) resolution and the amount of reference data used.

The role of pions in the nuclear interaction has been studied in pionic fusion experiments using the AGOR accelerator facility at KVI. Pionic fusion is a highly coherent process in which two nuclei fuse to a united nucleus and the available centre-of-mass (C.M.) energy is emitted through the pion channel. The examined reactions were He-4(He-3,pi(0))Be-7 and Li-6(He-4,pi(0))B-10* and both reactions were performed at C.M. energies about 10 MeV above the coherent pion production threshold. Here, the experimental results for the Li-6(He-4,pi(0))B-10* reaction will be presented and discussed. In order to provide sensitivity to the full dynamics and relevant processes involved in the pionic fusion reaction, almost the full angular distribution of neutral pions has been determined. In a phenomenological analysis, the contributions of Legendre polynomials to reproduce the behaviour of the angular distribution have been studied. The results of this analysis confirm the importance of the clustering correlations for the Li-6(He-4,pi(0))B-10* reaction. The mass dependence of the pionic fusion reaction is in agreement with the results of the existing models extrapolated to this reaction. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A 2 pi hemispherical detector consisting of 64 CsI(Tl) scintillator modules covering the angular range of 80 degrees -160 degrees has been constructed. This detector is employed as the Inner Shell of the Plastic Ball detector and was used in two experimental programs concerning the study of pionic fusion in light-ion systems. The geometry and construction are presented. The improved response of the combined detectors for photons are discussed. An energy calibration method using high energy cosmic muons for the Inner Shell and the Plastic Ball has been developed and the calibration results are compared to the results of the same method in the Monte-Carlo simulation. The improved acceptance of the combined detectors for the pi(0) detection in the (6)Li((4)He, pi(0))(10)B* experiment are presented and discussed. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The polarization observable I^s, a feature exclusive to the acoplanar kinematics of multi-meson final states produced via linearly polarized photons, has been measured for the first time. Results for the reaction g p -> p pi0 eta are presented for incoming photon energies between 970 MeV and 1650 MeV along with the beam asymmetry I^c. The comparably large asymmetries demonstrate a high sensitivity of I^s to the dynamics of the reaction. Fits using Bonn-Gatchina partial wave analysis demonstrate that the new polarization observables carry significant information on the contributing partial waves., 11 pages, 6 figures, v2 to appear in Phys. Lett. B

The photoproduction of 2π$^{0}$ mesons off protons was studied with the Crystal Barrel/TAPS experiment at the electron accelerator ELSA in Bonn. The energy of photons produced in a radiator was tagged in the energy range from 600 MeV to 2.5 GeV. Differential and total cross sections and pπ$^{0}$ π$^{0}$ Dalitz plots are presented. Part of the data was taken with a diamond radiator producing linearly polarized photons, and beam asymmetries were derived. Properties of nucleon and Δ resonances contributing to the pπ$^{0}$ π$^{0}$ final state were determined within the Bonn-Gatchina (BnGa) partial-wave analysis. The data presented here allow us to determine branching ratios of nucleon and Δ resonances for their decays into pπ$^{0}$ π$^{0}$ via several intermediate states. Most prominent are decays proceeding via Δ(1232)π, N(1440)1/2$^{+}$ π, N(1520)3/2$^{−}$ π, N(1680)5/2$^{+}$ π, but also pf$_{0}$(500), pf$_{0}$(980), and pf$_{2}$(1270) contribute to the reaction.

The photoproduction of 2$\pi^0$ mesons off protons was studied with the Crystal Barrel/TAPS experiment at the electron accelerator ELSA in Bonn. The energy of photons produced in a radiator was tagged in the energy range from 600\,MeV to 2.5\,GeV. Differential and total cross sections and $p\pi^0\pi^0$ Dalitz plots are presented. Part of the data was taken with a diamond radiator producing linearly polarized photons, and beam asymmetries were derived. Properties of nucleon and $\Delta$ resonances contributing to the $p\pi^0\pi^0$ final state were determined within the BnGa partial wave analysis. The data presented here allow us to determine branching ratios of nucleon and $\Delta$ resonances for their decays into $p\pi^0\pi^0$ via several intermediate states. Most prominent are decays proceeding via $\Delta(1232)\pi$, $N(1440)1/2^+\pi$, $N(1520)3/2^-\pi$, $N(1680)5/2^+\pi$, but also $pf_0(500)$, $pf_0(980)$, and $pf_2(1270)$ contribute to the reaction.

The N pi(0)pi(0) decays of positive-parity N* and Delta* resonances at about 2 GeV are studied at ELSA by photoproduction of two neutral pions off protons. The data reveal clear evidence for several intermediate resonances: Delta(1232), N(1520)3/2(-), and N(1680)5/2(+), with spin parities J(P) = 3/2(+), 3/2(-), and 5/2(+). The partial wave analysis (within the Bonn-Gatchina approach) identifies N(1440)1/2(+) and the N(pi pi)s (wave) (abbreviated as N sigma here) as further isobars and assigns the final states to the formation of nucleon and Delta resonances and to nonresonant contributions. We observe the know Delta(1232)pi decays of Delta(1910)1/2(+), Delta(1920)3/2(+), Delta(1905)5/2(+), Delta(1950)7/2(+), and of the corresponding spin-parity series in the nucleon sector, N(1880)1/2(+), N(1900)3/2(+), N(2000)5/2(+), and N(1990)7/2(+). For the nucleon resonances, these decay modes are reported here for the first time. Further new decay modes proceed via N(1440)1/2(pi)(+), N(1520)3/2(pi)(-) , N(1680)5/2(pi)(+), and N sigma. The latter decay modes are observed in the decay of N* resonances and at most weakly in Delta(*) decays. It is argued that these decay modes provide evidence for a 3-quark nature of N* resonances rather than a quark-diquark structure.

A series of nucleon-nucleon bremsstrahlung (NN gamma) experiments at 190 MeV incident beam energy have been performed at KVI in order to gain more insight into the dynamics governing the bremsstrahlung reaction. After initial measurements wherein the bremsstrahlung process was studied far away from the elastic limit, a new study was used to probe the process nearer to the elastic limit by measuring at lower photon energies. Measured cross sections and analyzing powers are compared with the predictions of a microscopic model and those of two soft-photon models. The theoretical calculations overestimate the data by up to approximate to 30%, for some kinematics.

The azimuthal distributions of photons and charged particles with respect to the event plane are investigated as a function of centrality in Pb-208 + Pb-208 collisions at 158 (.) A GeV/c in the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. The anisotropy of the azimuthal distributions is characterized using a Fourier analysis. For both the photon and charged particle distributions the first two Fourier coefficients are observed to decrease with increasing centrality. The observed anisotropies of the photon distributions compare well with the expectations from the charged particle measurements for all centralities.

A highly compact and fast VME based readout board for BaF/sub 2/ scintillation detectors has been designed, developed, and finally tested in an in-beam experiment. Adapted to the excellent properties of BaF/sub 2/, the unit allows to digitize time, energy, and pulse-shape information of four detector channels in parallel. The board is piggy-back plugged onto a motherboard containing a high-speed 12-bit ADC and the VME interface, commercially available in the customized version CAEN V874 A. Both combine to one single VME slot. A first measurement of the photon response of a TAPS subarray with energy tagged photons up to 2.6 GeV documents the full functionality and excellent performance.

The response of PbWO4 to high-energy protons has been investigated in two test experiments at the proton facilities Cosy and AGOR. The determined energy resolution below 360 MeV of sigma/E = 1.44%/E-gamma(1/2) + 1.97% is comparable to the known photon response. Measured spectra of inelastically scattered protons below 85 MeV are even compared to similar distributions obtained for BaF2- and CeF3-detectors. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Photoproduction off protons of the pπ 0 η three-body final state was studied with the Crystal Barrel/TAPS detector, at the electron stretcher accelerator ELSA in Bonn, for incident energies from the π 0 η production threshold up to 2.5 GeV. Differential cross sections and the total cross sections are presented. The use of linearly polarized photons gives access to the polarization observables Σ, I s , and I c , the latter two characterize beam asymmetries in case of three-body final states. Δ(1232)η, N(1535)1/2− π, and pa 0(980) are the dominant isobars contributing to the reaction. The partial wave analysis confirms the existence of some nucleon and Δ resonances, for which so far only fair evidence was reported. A large number of decay modes of known nucleon and Δ resonances is presented. It is shown that detailed investigations of decay branching ratios may provide a key to unravelling the structure of nucleon and Δ resonances.

The production of hard photons and neutral pions in 190 MeV proton induced reactions on C, Ca, Ni, and W targets has been for the first time concurrently studied. Angular distributions and energy spectra up to the kinematical limit are discussed and the production cross-sections are presented. From the target mass dependence of the cross-sections the propagation of pions through nuclear matter is analyzed and the production mechanisms of hard photons and primordial pions are derived. It is found that the production of subthreshold particles proceeds mainly through first chance nucleon-nucleon collisions. For the most energetic particles the mass scaling evidences the effect of multiple collisions., Comment: submitted to Phys. Lett. B

A measurement of direct photon production in {sup 208}Pb+ {sup 208}Pb collisions at 158A GeV has been carried out in the CERN WA98 experiment. The invariant yield of direct photons in central collisions is extracted as a function of transverse momentum in the interval 0.5 1.5 GeV/c . The result constitutes the first observation of direct photons in ultrarelativistic heavy-ion collisions. It could be significant for diagnosis of quark-gluon-plasma formation.

Three-particle correlations have been measured for identified {pi}{sup -} from central 158A GeV Pb+Pb collisions by the WA98 experiment at CERN. A substantial contribution of the genuine three-body correlation has been found as expected for a mainly chaotic and symmetric source.

Photons originating from coherent bremsstrahlung have been measured over a large dynamic range for the reaction of 200 MeV alpha particles with protons. At low photon energies the bremsstrahlung spectrum exhibits the classical behavior with an approximate 1/E-gamma shape. At higher photon energies there is a pronounced contribution from capture into the unbound ground state and first excited state of Li-5. These results allow one, for the first time, to test theoretical models for a consistent description of bremsstrahlung and radiative capture in a complex system. Calculations predict both features qualitatively but fail to account for their relative importance.

Exclusive differential cross sections of virtual-photon radiative proton capture in pd→ 3 He +e + e − at a proton energy of 190 MeV have been measured for the first time. The leptonic-angle dependence of the measured cross section is exploited in order to determine the electromagnetic response functions in the time-like region. The data are compared to a relativistic gauge-invariant impulse approximation and a Faddeev calculation. Differences between theoretical predictions and data are discussed in terms of enhanced magnetic radiation possibly originating from virtual Δ excitations.

In collisions of heavy ions at relativistic energies highly excited nuclear matter is produced. Hadronic and electromagnetic probes are investigated in order to study the composition and the thermodynamical properties of the short-liver interaction volume and its expansion characteristics. The ultimate goal is to identify signals for a phase transition of hadronic matter to the quark-gluon plasma state. Because of the high multiplicity of particles in the final state various experimental techniques and analysis methods have been development in order to study exclusive signals with electromagnetic and hadronic probes. A selection of detector concepts which have been applied in heavy ion reactions at the CERN SPS will be presented here.

Recent results of the WA98 experiment with Pb induced reactions at 158. A GeV are presented. The scaling properties of the transverse energy and the charged particle multiplicity at midrapidity with the number of participants is studied. Neutral pion spectra are compared to hydrodynamical parameterizations. The analysis of collective flow at target rapidity and at midrapidity is presented. The status of the study of direct photons and the search for isospin fluctuations is discussed.

An exclusive proton-proton bremsstrahlung measurement has been performed with polarized protons of 190 MeV. Absolute cross sections and analyzing powers have been measured with unprecedented accuracy in a large part of the phase space. The data are compared with state-of-the-art theoretical calculations including higher-order off-shell effects, like the Delta isobar and meson-exchange currents. Surprisingly, the calculations are unable xo describe the data in detail.

We report on a measurement of subthreshold eta and pi(0) mesons in the reaction Ar + Ca at 180A MeV. We find that the ratio of the eta to pi(0) meson-production cross section is more than a factor of 20 smaller than the one expected from threshold-energy scalings of meson production. In addition, the multiplicity of high m(t) pi(0) increases faster with the centrality of the reaction than the multiplicity of the bulk of pi(0) mesons. This behavior is explained by the rescattering of pi mesons in nuclear matter at the origin of most energetic particles.

In photoproduction experiments, a large number of final states yielding various resonance contributions are accessible. To extract resonance parameters via partial-wave analysis not only the measurement of differential cross-sections is necessary, but also the determination of polarization observables. At the electron accelerator ELSA (Bonn) the coherent bremsstrahlung method was used to generate a linearly polarized photon beam. Using the CBELSA/TAPS detector setup, the beam asymmetry Σ in the reaction γp → pπ 0 η was determined as a function of various masses and angles for photon energies between 970MeV and 1650MeV.

Anisotropic transverse flow has been studied with a magnetic spectrometer at midrapidity and the Plastic Ball detector at target rapidity in the WA98 experiment. Our preliminary results show the existence of directed and elliptic flow in semi-central Pb+Pb collisions. The magnitude of the directed flow is found to be significantly smaller than those observed at the AGS energies.

The Dalitz-decay contributions of pi(0) and eta mesons to the di-electron invariant-mass spectrum at 1A GeV have been obtained from a systematics of inclusive meson production cross sections measured for the collision systems C-12 + C-nat and Ar-40, Ca-40 + Ca-nat in the bombarding-energy range of 0.8-2.0 A GeV. These results are compared with the recently published di-electron mass spectra of the DLS collaboration. Systematic errors and angular-distribution effects are discussed. We conclude that the low-mass part of the DLS data cannot be explained by the Dalitz decays of light neutral mesons only.

The impact-parameter dependence of π o - and η-meson production is reported for the system 40 Ar+ nat Ca at a beam energy of 800 A MeV. Scaling of the meson abundances with the transverse mass is observed. The experimental results are compared to calculations within the BUU model.

We present prototype studies of a new technical solution of detector readout for measurements of charged particles at very high particle densities. In particular, this paper describes a readout system for Multi-Step Avalanche Chambers designed for the WA98 experiment at the CERN SPS. Results from the prototype studies are used for the design parameters of a readout chip containing both analog and digital functions. Simulations of the final system show that the position of the electron cloud can be reconstructed for single particles to an accuracy of 100 and 300 μm in the horizontal and vertical directions, respectively. Separation of two tracks about 5 mm apart is also obtained from the simulation.

The photon spectrometer TAPS is a versatile instrument to measure nuclear bremsstrahlung and neutral mesons via their γ decay. The formation and evolution of compressed nuclear matter is studied in heavy ion collisions at relativistic energies by analyzing the yield and spectral distribution of neutral meson (π0, η). Pion absorption through the Δ capture process is derived from the pion energy spectrum. The nuclear bremsstrahlung is exploited to study the evolution of the equilibrating collision zone and to infer the strength of dissipation mechanisms. Off-shell effects and subnucleonic degrees of freedom in the NN interaction are being studied with polarized protons on protons and nuclear targets.

The PANDA detection system at FAIR, Germany, is designed to study antiproton-proton annihilations, in order to investigate among others the realm of charm-meson states and glueballs, which has still much to reveal. The yet unknown properties of this field are to be unraveled through studying QCD phenomena in the non-perturbative regime. The multipurpose PANDA detector will be capable of tracking, calorimetry, and particle identification, and is foreseen to run at high luminosities providing average reaction rates up to 20 Million interactions/s. The envisaged physics program requires measurements of photons and charged particles with excellent energy, position, and time resolutions. The electromagnetic calorimeter (EMC) will serve as one of the basic components of the detector setup and comprises cooled Lead-Tungstate (PbWO4) crystals. This paper presents the mechanical design of the Forward End-cap calorimeter and analyses the response of this detector component in conjunction with the full EMC and the complete PANDA detector. The simulation studies are focused on the performance of the planned EMC with respect to the energy and spatial resolution of the reconstructed photons. Results of the Monte Carlo simulations, excluding very low-energy photons, have been validated by data obtained from a prototype calorimeter and shown to fulfil the requirements imposed by the PANDA physics program., Comment: 22 Pages, 24 Figures, 4 Tables

Correlations between protons are studied in the target fragmentation region of reactions of protons and16O with C, Cu, Ag, Au and of32S with Al and Au at 200A GeV. The emitted protons were measured with the Plastic Ball detector in the WA80 experiment at the CERN SPS. The comparison of the correlation function with calculations, assuming a spherical, gaussian shaped source with a lifetime τ=0 fm/c, allows the extraction of radius parameters. The values are very close to those expected from the geometry of the target nuclei and increase with the target mass as αATarget1/3. Even in proton induced reactions the whole target nucleus is involved. The dependence of the radii on centrality, polar angleθlab, and energy, and their relation to measured proton yields are presented.

The PANDA collaboration at the future FAIR facility at Darmstadt, Germany, will employ antiproton annihilations to investigate resonances in the charmonium mass region. In order to gain high flexibility for physics event selection, a readout system without hardware trigger, i.e. a trigger-less data-acquisition system will be employed and is currently being developed. The event-selection is based on high-level reconstructed information, e.g. invariant mass, secondary vertices, and time correlations, which may be contributed from all sub-detector systems. Prototypes of the PANDA Electromagnetic Calorimeter have been exploited to verify the desired event-selection approach. The prototype readout system includes a dedicated Sampling ADC (SADC), data concentrator (DCON) and compute-node (CN) modules. An optical link connects several SADC digitizers to a DCON module from where the data are streamed to the CN network. Data, collected by the SADCs are processed online in FPGAs by a feature-extraction algorithm. This processing technique guarantees a dead-time free operation and allows including an on-line pile-up recovery process for single detector counting rates up to 1 MHz. The prototype of the readout-chain has been evaluated using pulse generators and high-energy photon beams; the proper event correlation could be verified. The applied FPGA has been irradiated with protons to demonstrate its applicability in the radiation environment of the PANDA experiment.

Positron emission tomography detectors based on monolithic scintillation crystals exhibit good spatial and energy resolution, intrinsically provide depth-of-interaction information, have high γ-photon capture efficiency, and may reduce the manufacturing costs compared to pixelated crystal arrays. Here, we present the characterization of a detector consisting of a 18.0 mm×16.2 mm×10.0 mm monolithic LaBr₃:5%Ce scintillator directly coupled to a 4×4 array of silicon photomultipliers. An energy resolution of 6.4% full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) was obtained. The point-spread-function (PSF) was determined for different regions of the detector. The full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) of the PSF was measured to be1.5 mm at the center of the detector and1.7 mm averaged over the entire crystal. Both values are not corrected for the ~0.6 mm FWHM test beam diameter. Furthermore, the influence of edge effects was investigated. We found that near the edges of the detector the spatial resolution degrades to 2.2 mm (FWHM), and a bias in the position estimates, up to 1.5 mm, was observed. Moreover, the coincidence resolving time for two identical detectors in coincidence was measured to be as small as ~198 ps FWHM.

Transverse momentum spectra of \ensuremath{\eta} mesons have been measured near the free nucleon-nucleon production threshold in the heavy ion reactions $^{40}\mathrm{Ar}$+ $^{\mathrm{nat}}\mathrm{Ca}$, $^{86}\mathrm{Kr}$ + $^{\mathrm{nat}}\mathrm{Zr}$, and $^{197}\mathrm{Au}$+ $^{197}\mathrm{Au}$ at 1.0A GeV and also in $^{40}\mathrm{Ar}$+ $^{\mathrm{nat}}\mathrm{Ca}$ at 1.5A GeV. The measured transverse momentum distributions are compared to model calculations. The relative abundance of \ensuremath{\Delta}(1232) and N(1535) resonances excited in the collision is deduced. A comparison to pion data reveals scaling with the transverse mass of the emitted meson.

Neutral pi0 and eta spectra have been obtained over a wide transverse momentum range for various centralities of S + Au collisions at 200 GeV/nucleon. The analysis was done of the full statistics of the WA80 experiment at CERN using the two-photon invariant mass spectra. Compared to the previous analysis [1, 2] the pi0 and eta spectra were obntained over an extended p(t) range of 0.2

Differential cross sections of the reaction $p(d,^3{\rm He})\gamma$ have been measured at deuteron laboratory energies of 110, 133 and 180 MeV. The data were obtained with a coincidence setup measuring both the outgoing $^3$He and the photon. The data are compared with modern calculations including all possible meson-exchange currents and two- and three- nucleon forces in the potential. The data clearly show a preference for one of the models, although the shape of the angular distribution cannot be reproduced by any of the presented models., Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, accepted for publication in EPJA

Measurements of, slow, singly charged fragments in the target rapidity region have been performed for proton and pion induced reactions with various nuclei at 200 GeV/c. Multiplicity, angular and energy distributions are examined and used to study the effects of rescattering in the nuclear medium. Data are compared to a ''geometric cascade model' and to simulations with the VENUS 3.11 and the FRITIOF 1.7 Monte Carlo codes.

We present results from an experimental study of reabsorption effects in subthreshold pi0 production in the reaction Xe-129 + Au-197 at 44 MeV/nucleon. Within the picture of pion generation in nucleon-nucleon scattering we deduce, from our data and from a comparison with the systematics of production cross sections available for lighter reaction systems, information on the pi0 absorption length in nuclear matter. For the pi0 kinetic-energy range congruent-to 5-100 MeV the energy-averaged lambda(abs) and its momentum dependence are obtained, and compared with optical-model calculations.

Using a 3790 module lead glass photon spectrometer π° and η mesons have been measured in 200 A · GeV S + Au collisions by invariant mass reconstruction. Centrality selected transverse momentum π° spectra have been obtained for 0.5 ≤ pT ≤ 4.0 GeV/c displaying a much flatter slope for central compared to peripheral data. The problems of extracting single photon to π° yields from the data are discussed and the total error of their determination is given for present and future experiments. It is concluded that an accuracy of about 7 % can be obtained in the γπ° ratio.

Results on pseudorapidity distributions, azimuthal correlations, and on two particle interferometry for identified protons and pions measured in the target fragmentation region of high energy proton-nucleus and nucleus-nucleus collisions are presented. Full participation of the whole target nucleus is observed even for 200 GeV p + Au collisions. Incorporation of strong rescattering phenomena into string models, including pion absorption effects in excited target matter, provides a good description of most experimental data.

Several improvements of the k-nearest neighbor (k-NN) method for the determination of the entry point (x, y) of a gamma photon in a monolithic scintillator PET detector have been investigated with the aim to obtain better spatial resolution and/or to enable faster detector calibration by reducing the amount of required reference data and by allowing for calibrating with a line source. These methods were tested on a dataset measured with a SiPM-array-based monolithic LYSO detector. It appears that ∼10% to ∼25% better spatial resolution can be obtained compared to the standard approach. Moreover, some of the improved methods using two orders of magnitude less reference data, yield essentially the same spatial resolution as the standard method, which reduces the time needed for calibration as well as entry point computation. Finally, line source calibration is shown to be possible with some of the methods, yielding better results than the standard method and allowing much faster and easier collection of the reference data.

In this work we present a measurement setup for the determination of scintillation pulse shapes of fast scintillators. It is based on a time-correlated single photon counting approach that utilizes correlation between 511 keV annihilation photons to produce start and stop signals in two, separate crystals. The measurement is potentially cost effective and simple to set up while maintaining an excellent timing resolution of 120 ps. Apart from these advantages this method probes the entire volume of the crystal under investigation rather than a thin layer at the surface. Here, we present a proof-of-concept and first results for the time constants of LYSO.

Positron emission tomography (PET) detectors based on monolithic scintillation crystals show excellent intrinsic spatial resolution and allow depth-of-interaction (DOI) reconstruction using a single photosensor array. The inclusion of time-of-flight (TOF) information in the image reconstruction significantly reduces the image noise variance, effectively increasing the PET system sensitivity. For optimal detection efficiency, thick crystals are needed. However, the attainable spatial resolution decreases as the crystal thickness is increased. A maximum-likelihood-estimation (MLE) algorithm was developed to determine the 3D gamma interaction position. We present results on positioning and timing performance vs. crystal thickness for three monolithic LYSO crystals (16.2 mm × 18 mm × z, z = 10 mm, 15 mm, or 20 mm) coupled to a multi-anode photomultiplier (MA-PMT). The positioning performance varied with the distance to the MA-PMT. For the 20 mm thick LYSO crystal the position resolution parallel to the MA-PMT varied between 2.5 and 4.5 mm FWHM with the distance, while the DOI could be reconstructed with a resolution varying between 2 and 5 mm FWHM. For the 20 mm thick LYSO crystal in coincidence with a fast BaF 2 detector, a coincidence resolving time (CRT) of 324 ps FWHM was obtained using digital time pickoff. We observed a signal propagation time variation with gamma interaction position from 30 ps for the 10 mm thick crystal to 65 ps for the 20 mm thick crystal. We conclude that thick monolithic scintillation crystals for optimal detection efficiency show very good timing resolution, which hardly degrades when increasing the crystal thickness from 10 mm to 20 mm, and allow for accurate position reconstruction (including DOI) at minimal detector costs (using a single photosensor array to read out the crystal).