Charged pion photoproduction from deuterium for photon energies of 500 to 1000 Mev

Abstract

The yields of charged pions photoproduced from deuterium have been measured at several pion angles for photon energies between 500 and 1000 Mev. Pions produced in a liquid deuterium target by the photon beam of the Caltech electron synchrotron were deflected by a wedge-shaped magnet into a set of scintillation counters. The ratio of the differential cross-sections for the production of negative and positive pions has been determined. This ratio varies from 0.4 to 2.8. The ratio decreases at high photon energies for all pion angles, reaching a value near 0.5 for all pion center-of-mass angles less than 150[degrees]. The absolute values of the differential cross-sections for the photoproduction of positive pions from deuterium have been determined and compared with the corresponding cross-sections measured previously from hydrogen. The ratio of these cross-sections averages about 0.95. The difference between the positive pion cross-sections from deuterium and those from hydrogen seems compatible with measurements which have been made of the elastic photodisintegration of the deuteron.