Medium energy meson research

Abstract

The activities of this group are primarily concerned with experiments using the Crystal Barrel Detector. This detector is installed and operating at the Low Energy Antiproton Ring (LEAR) at CERN. QCD, the modem theory of the strong interaction, is reasonably well understood at high energies, but unfortunately, low-energy QCD is still not well understood, and is far from being adequately tested. The Crystal Barrel experiments are designed to provide some of the tests. The basic line of research involves meson spectroscopy, analyses bearing on the quark and/or gluon content of nuclear states, and the exploration of mechanisms and rules which govern p{bar p} annihilation dynamics. The Crystal Barrel Detector detects and identifies charged and neutral particles with a geometric acceptance close to 100%. The principal component of the detector is an array of 1,380 CsI(TI) crystals. These crystals surround a Jet Drift Chamber (JDC), located in a 1.5 Tesla magnetic field, which measures the momentum and dE/dx of charged particles. One of the very interesting physics goals of the detector is a search for exotic mesonic states -- glueballs and hybrids. Annihilation at rest will be studied with both liquid and gaseous hydrogen targets. The gaseous target offers the possibility of triggering on atomic L-shell X rays so that specific initial angular momentum states can be studied.These topics as well as other related topics are discussed in this report.