Measurement of the transverse target and beam-target asymmetries in η meson photoproduction at MAMI

Phys Rev Lett. 2014 Sep 5;113(10):102001. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.113.102001. Epub 2014 Sep 4.

Abstract

We present new data for the transverse target asymmetry T and the very first data for the beam-target asymmetry F in the γ[over →]p[over →]→ηp reaction up to a center-of-mass energy of W=1.9 GeV. The data were obtained with the Crystal-Ball/TAPS detector setup at the Glasgow tagged photon facility of the Mainz Microtron MAMI. All existing model predictions fail to reproduce the new data indicating a significant impact on our understanding of the underlying dynamics of η meson photoproduction. The peculiar nodal structure observed in existing T data close to threshold is not confirmed.