Photoproduction of the $f_2(1270)$ meson using the CLAS detector

M. Carver , A. Celentano , K. Hicks , L. Marsicano , V. Mathieu , A. Pilloni , K.P. Adhikari , S. Adhikari , M.J. Amaryan , G. Angelini , H. Atac , N.A. Baltzell , L. Barion , M. Battaglieri , I. Bedlinskiy , F. Benmokhtar , A. Bianconi , A.S. Biselli , M. Bondi , F. Bossù (1) , S. Boiarinov , W.J. Briscoe , W.K. Brooks , D. Bulumulla , V.D. Burkert , D.S. Carman , J.C. Carvajal , P. Chatagnon (2) , T. Chetry , G. Ciullo , L. Clark , B.A. Clary , P.L. Cole , M. Contalbrigo , V. Crede , A. d'Angelo , N. Dashyan , R. de Vita , M. Defurne (1) , A. Deur , S. Diehl , C. Djalali , M. Dugger , R. Dupre (2) , H. Egiyan , M. Ehrhart , A. El Alaoui , L. El Fassi , P. Eugenio , G. Fedotov , S. Fegan , A. Filippi , G. Gavalian , N. Gevorgyan , G.P. Gilfoyle , F.X. Girod (1) , R.W. Gothe , K.A. Griffioen , K. Hafidi , H. Hakobyan , M. Hattawy , T.B. Hayward , D. Heddle , M. Holtrop , Q. Huang (1) , C.E. Hyde , Y. Ilieva , D.G. Ireland , E.L. Isupov , D. Jenkins , H.S. Jo , K. Joo , S. Joosten , D. Keller , A. Khanal , M. Khandaker , A. Kim , C.W. Kim , F.J. Klein , A. Kripko , V. Kubarovsky , L. Lanza , M. Leali , P. Lenisa , K. Livingston , I.J.D. Macgregor , D. Marchand (2) , V. Mascagna , M.E. Mccracken , B. Mckinnon , Z.E. Meziani , V. Mokeev , A. Movsisyan , E. Munevar , C. Munoz Camacho (2) , P. Nadel-Turonski , K. Neupane , S. Niccolai (2) , G. Niculescu , M. Osipenko , A.I. Ostrovidov , M. Paolone , L.L. Pappalardo , R. Paremuzyan , E. Pasyuk , W. Phelps , O. Pogorelko , Y. Prok , D. Protopopescu , M. Ripani , B.G. Ritchie , J. Ritman , A. Rizzo , G. Rosner , J. Rowley , F. Sabatié (1) , C. Salgado , A. Schmidt , R.A. Schumacher , Y.G. Sharabian , U. Shrestha , D. Sokhan , O. Soto , N. Sparveris , S. Stepanyan , I.I. Strakovsky , S. Strauch , N. Tyler , R. Tyson , M. Ungaro , L. Venturelli , H. Voskanyan , E. Voutier (2) , D.P. Watts , K. Wei , X. Wei , B. Yale , N. Zachariou , J. Zhang , Z.W. Zhao

1 IRFU - Institut de Recherches sur les lois Fondamentales de l'Univers
2 IJCLab - Laboratoire de Physique des 2 Infinis Irène Joliot-Curie

The quark structure of the f2(1270) meson has, for many years, been assumed to be a pure quark-antiquark (qq¯) resonance with quantum numbers JPC=2++. Recently, it was proposed that the f2(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→π0π0p, 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 f2(1270) photoproduction are extracted with good precision due to low backgrounds and are compared to theoretical calculations.

Mots clés: Elementary Particles and Fields; f2(1270): photoproduction; background: low; beam: energy; CLAS; differential cross section; quark antiquark; quantum number; Jefferson Lab; suppression; rho(770) --> pi+ pi-; photon rho(770) --> pi0 pi0 p; M005M; M005W

Domaines: Physique Nucléaire Expérimentale [nucl-ex]; Physique des Hautes Energies - Expérience [hep-ex]

M. Carver, A. Celentano, K. Hicks, L. Marsicano, V. Mathieu, et al.. Photoproduction of the $f_2(1270)$ meson using the CLAS detector. Physical Review Letters, 2021, 126 (8), pp.082002. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.082002⟩. ⟨hal-03164391⟩