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Charged pion photoproduction from light nuclei

Thesis/Dissertation ·
OSTI ID:5191209

The photoproduction of 0 to 150 MeV charged pions from nuclei is calculated using a distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) approach. In each case, the final nuclear states are restricted to a finite set of isospin analogs of excited states of the target nucleus. The final state interactions of the pion with the residual nucleus are incorporated via optical potentials. The elementary photoproduction operator used is that of Blomqvist and Laget which is derived in a general reference frame. Total and differential cross sections for ..pi../sup +-/ production from /sup 6/Li, /sup 7/Li, /sup 10/B, /sup 12/C and /sup 14/N are calculated and compared with available data. It is found that, with a few exceptions, reasonable agreement is obtained between theory and experiment as long as the nuclear wave functions are constrained to fit other electromagnetic and weak processes and the optical potentials are constrained to fit pion-nucleus elastic scattering data. We conclude that using the Blomqvist-Laget operator in a DWIA calculation adequately describes the dynamics of charged pion photoproduction from complex nuclei and that this reaction can be used to obtain information on the short range nature of the pion wave function and on nuclear wave functions. Further improvements on this calculation are also suggested.

Research Organization:
Pittsburgh Univ., PA (USA)
OSTI ID:
5191209
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English