Search

The nuclear spin-lattice relaxation time ($T_1$) of lanthanum and aluminum nuclei in a single crystal of lanthanum aluminate doped with neodymium ions is studied to estimate the feasibility of the dynamically polarized lanthanum target applicable to beam experiments. The application of our interest is the study of fundamental discrete symmetries in the spin optics of epithermal neutrons. This study requires a highly flexible choice of the applied magnetic field for neutron spin control and favors longer $T_1$ under lower magnetic field and at higher temperature. The $T_1$ of $^{139}{\rm La}$ and ${}^{27}{\rm Al}$ was measured under magnetic fields of $0.5$-$2.5$ T and at temperatures of $0.1$-$1.5$ K and found widely distributed up to 100 h. The result suggests that the $T_1$ can be as long as $T_1 \sim$ 1 h at $0.1$ K with a magnetic field of $0.1$ T, which partially fulfills the requirement of the neutron beam experiment. Possible improvements to achieve a longer $T_1$ are discussed., Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures

A search for the K − p p bound state (the lightest kaonic nucleus) has been performed using the γ d → K + π − X reaction at E γ = 1.5 – 2.4 GeV at LEPS/SPring-8. The differential cross section of the K + π − photo-production off deuterium ( d 2 σ / d cos θ K + l a b / d cos θ π − l a b ) 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 − p p 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.

The thermal conductivity of a hydrogen deuteride (HD) single crystal is measured at 3–7 K for two mutually perpendicular directions of heat flow in the crystal. The HD sample is prepared by direct crystallization from ultra high-purity HD gas. A typical anisotropy with a ratio of nearly tenfold is obtained for the thermal conductivity in the measured temperature region. Approximate calculations of the anisotropic thermal conductivity in the HD crystal are performed using an analytical formulation of the two-dimensional anisotropic heat conduction, while taking into account cross-plane coupling of phonon Umklapp scattering. The approximate calculations are found to be in reasonable agreement with the experimental results.

A portable NMR polarimeter system has been developed to measure the polarization of a polarized Hydrogen-Deuteride (HD) target for hadron photoproduction experiments at SPring-8. The polarized HD target is produced at the Research Center for Nuclear Physics (RCNP), Osaka university and is transported to SPring-8. The HD polarization should be monitored at both places. We have constructed the portable NMR polarimeter system by replacing the devices in the conventional system with the software system with PCI eXtensions for Instrumentation (PXI). The weight of the NMR system is downsized from 80 kg to 7 kg, and the cost is reduced to 25%. We check the performance of the portable NMR polarimeter system. The signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio of the NMR signal for the portable system is about 50% of that for the conventional NMR system. This performance of the portable NMR system is proved to be compatible with the conventional NMR system for the polarization measurement., Comment: 6 page, 8 figures, 2011/Mar/9 Replace Authors

We report measurements of differential cross sections and decay asymmetries of incoherent ϕ-meson photoproduction from the deuteron at forward angles using linearly polarized photons at E γ = 1.5 – 2.4 GeV . The nuclear transparency ratio for the deuteron shows a large suppression, and is consistent with the A-dependence of the ratio observed in a previous measurement with nuclear targets. The reduction for the deuteron cannot be adequately explained in term of isospin asymmetry. The present results suggest the need of refining our understanding of the ϕ–N interaction within a nucleus.

Differential cross sections and decay asymmetries for coherent $\phi$-meson photoproduction from deuterons were measured for the first time at forward angles using linearly polarized photons at $E_{\gamma}$= 1.5-2.4 GeV. This reaction offers a unique way to directly access natural-parity Pomeron dynamics and gluon exchange at low energies. The cross sections at zero degrees increase with increasing photon energy. The decay asymmetries demonstrate a complete dominance of natural-parity exchange processes, showing that isovector unnatural-parity $\pi$-meson exchange is small. Nevertheless the deduced cross sections of $\phi$-mesons from nucleons contributed by isoscalar t-channel exchange processes are not well described by the conventional Pomeron model., Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures. Final published version

We developed a trigger system for the measurement of proton-induced rare hadronic reactions around the beam kinetic energy T p = 400 MeV based on highly segmented trigger scintillation detectors and programmable logic modules. The trigger system was designed to enhance events with the negative-pion production by the difference of the curvatures of the particle tracks in a magnetic field. Since the production cross-section of the negative-pion by the proton-induced reactions was smaller by about 3 orders of magnitude than the total cross-section around the beam energy, we expected large reduction of the trigger rate by the negative-pion selection. The construction of the trigger system was not trivial due to a large detector acceptance that was inevitable to measure the rare reactions. The performance of the trigger system was evaluated by using T p = 430 MeV proton beams. An excellent reduction, more than 2 orders of magnitude reduction, of the background events was achieved.

Differential cross sections and photon beam asymmetries for π 0 photoproduction have been measured at E γ = 1.5 – 2.4 GeV and at the π 0 scattering angles, − 1 cos Θ c . m . − 0.6 . The energy-dependence of differential cross sections for u-channel π 0 production has been determined. An enhancement at backward angles is found above E γ = 1.9 GeV . This is likely to be due to u-channel diagrams. Photon beam asymmetries have been obtained for the first time at backward angles, showing a strong angular dependence at E γ > 2.0 GeV .

Photon beam asymmetries for the γ → p → K + Λ and γ → p → K + Σ 0 reactions have been measured for the photon energy range from 1.5 GeV to 2.4 GeV and for the angular range of 0 ° Θ cm K + 60 ° at the SPring-8/LEPS facility. The observed asymmetries are found to be positive and increase with increasing the photon energy. Present theoretical calculations do not reproduce the data. To extend our knowledge on the K + photoproduction mechanism including the effect of nucleon resonances, further theoretical development is required to fit both the cross section and asymmetry data.

The photo-production of ϕ mesons from Li, C, Al, and Cu at forward angles has been measured at E γ = 1.5 – 2.4 GeV . The number of events for incoherent ϕ photo-production is found to have a target mass number dependence of A 0.72 ± 0.07 in the kinematical region of | t | ⩽ 0.6 GeV 2 / c 2 . The total cross section of the ϕ –nucleon interaction, σ ϕ N , has been estimated as 35 −11 +17 mb using the A -dependence of the ϕ photo-production yield and a Glauber-type multiple scattering theory. This value is much larger than σ ϕ N in free space, suggesting that the ϕ properties might change in the nuclear medium.

The γ A → π 0 π 0 X reactions is one of the tools to effectively investigate partial restoration of chiral symmetry. An experiment was performed at the LEPS/SPring-8 facility using various nuclear targets. In this experiment, a 2π calorimeter consisting of 252 Lead/SCIFI modules was used to detect the photons coming from the π 0 π 0 decay. A preliminary analysis shows that π 0 π 0 X events are observed.

We have constructed a Time Projection Chamber (TPC) as the 4π detector for hadron photoproduction experiments at SPring-8. A feature of this TPC is to detect low momentum hyperons as close as 16 mm from the target center. We have studied basic performances of the TPC such as the resolution of dE / dx measurement and the spatial resolution with cosmic rays. The resolution of dE / dx measurement is 16% for minimum ionizing particles. The spatial resolution in pad plane is 280 μm and that along drift direction is 620 μm. The spatial resolution at the distance of 16 mm from the target is obtained to be 400 μm and 880 μm in pad plane and along drift direction respectively.

The BNL-AGS/E929 experiment was carried out to study energy levels of the Λ 13 C hypernucleus by a gamma-ray spectroscopy. Energy splitting of the spin-orbit doublets, 1 2 − and 3 2 − states, was estimated precisely. The excitation energy of the 1st 3 2 + state was also measured. We discuss the symmetric and the anti-symmetric spin-orbit interactions between a Λ particle and a nucleon from the measurement.

The GeV photon beam at SPring-8 is produced by backward-Compton scattering of laser photons from 8 GeV electrons. Polarization of the photon beam is ∼100% at the maximum energy with fully polarized laser photons. We report the status of the new facility and the prospect of hadron physics study with this high quality beam. Preliminary results from the first physics run are presented.

We present the design of a 13C active target used in the (K−,π−) reaction measurement for hypernuclear studies. The active target has been fabricated from enriched 13C benzene by adding commercially available laser dyes. The performance of the active target has been tested with a 930 MeV /c kaon beam, and used for the 13C(K−,π−γ)13ΛC reaction measurement to reduce the K− decay in-flight backgrounds.

For a selective excitation of spin-flip strength, ( 6 Li, 6 He) reactions can be a useful tool, because: a) 6 Li and 6 He have ground-state spin and parity values J π = 1 + and 0 + , respectively; b) 6 He has no particle-stable excited state, thus effects from ejectile excitation can be avoided. The ( 6 Li, 6 He) experiments were performed at 100 MeV/nucleon, at which incident energy the reaction is expected to be single-step dominant. Through the analysis of the good-resolution ( 6 Li, 6 He) data on 13 C, 26 Mg, 27 Al and 58 Ni targets, the evidence for a proportional relationship between 0° cross sections and the corresponding Gamow-Teller transition strengths is examined. Suppression of non-spin flip excitations is discussed based on the hindrance of the excitation of the isobaric analog state.

The charge-exchange 71Ga(3He,tγ)71Ge reaction was used to study the spin-isospin (Gamow Teller: GT) excitations relevant to the axial-vector charged-weak response for solar neutrinos. High-lying GT states in 71Ge with excitation energies up to one MeV above the neutron threshold were found to have finite γ-decay branches to low-lying states. The GT strengths for relevant states and absorption rates of solar neutrinos through the 71Ga(ν, e)71Ge and 71Ga(ν,eγ)71Ge reactions were derived.

A γ-ray detector system “NYMPHS” was built for 7Be-γ coincidence measurements to separate (7Li, 7Beg.s.) and (7Li, 7Be0.43MeV) channels in the (7Li, 7Be) reaction at intermediate energies. NYMPHS is composed of 22 GSO scintillators, each with a volume of about 30 cm3. A typical energy resolution was about 9% at Eγ = 0.66 MeV. The absolute detection efficiency of NYMPHS was 0.200 ± 0.005 for the 0.43 MeV 7Be γ-ray. NYMPHS combined with a magnetic spectrograph showed good performance for 7Be-γ coincidence measurements in the (7Li, 7Be) reactions on 12C and 90Zr targets at EL = 65A MeV.

The ( 7 Li, 7 Be) reaction was found to be used to separate ΔS = 0 and ΔS = 1 transitions through the coincidence measurement of the γ-ray from deexcitation of the 0.43 MeV state of 7 Be at an incident energy of 65 A MeV on 6 Li, 7 Li, 12 C and 90 Zr nuclei. The reaction was shown to proceed predominantly via one-step reaction process. Predominance of one-step process means utility for derivation of spin-flip and non spin-flip strengths for isovector excitations in medium heavy nuclei at intermediate incident energies. The relative nuclear spin-strength P sf was deduced for isovector excitations.