Impact of vector meson polarization on its interaction with matter

Abstract

The production of unstable particles on different nuclei provides the possibility to determine the total cross section of the interaction of vector mesons V=rho ,omega ,varphi , K^{*0}(892),J/psi etc. with nucleons. This interaction is defined by a set of amplitudes that correspond to the transverse (helicity lambda =pm 1) or longitudinal (lambda =0) polarization of the vector meson. The total cross section for the interaction of transversely polarized vector mesons with nucleon sigma _T=sigma (V_T N) has been extracted from the coherent photoproduction of vector mesons off nuclei, while the vector meson production in charge exchange reactions as pi ^pm (K^pm )+Arightarrow V^0(K^{*0})+A' provides the unique opportunity to obtain the not yet measured total cross section for longitudinally polarized vector meson interacting with nucleon sigma _L=sigma (V_L N). We shortly discuss the importance of the knowledge of sigma _L and possibility to extract its value from experiments on nuclear target.