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Charged pion photoproduction from light nuclei

Journal Article · · Ann. Phys. (N.Y.); (United States)

The photoproduction of 0--150-MeV charged pions from light nuclei is studied from a distorted wave impulse approximation (DWIA) approach. 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 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. To gain insight into the predictive power of this DWIA approach, total and differential cross sections for ..pi../sup + -/ 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, in this stage, using the Blomqvist--Laget operator in a DWIA calculation adequately describes the dynamics of charged pion photoproduction from complex nuclei. We illustrate how this reaction can be used to obtain information on the short range nature of the pion wave function and on nuclear wave functions. Shortcomings of and improvements on this caluculation are also suggested.

Research Organization:
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15260
OSTI ID:
6005591
Journal Information:
Ann. Phys. (N.Y.); (United States), Journal Name: Ann. Phys. (N.Y.); (United States) Vol. 135:1; ISSN APNYA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English