New graphical criterion for the selection of complete sets of polarization observables and its application to single-meson photoproduction as well as electroproduction

Abstract

This paper combines the graph-theoretical ideas behind Moravcsik's theorem with a completely analytic derivation of discrete phase ambiguities, recently published by Nakayama. The result is a new graphical procedure for the derivation of certain types of complete sets of observables for an amplitude-extraction problem with $N$ helicity amplitudes. The procedure is applied to pseudoscalar meson photoproduction ($N=4$ amplitudes) and electroproduction ($N=6$ amplitudes), yielding complete sets with minimal length of $2N$ observables. For the case of electroproduction, this is the first time an extensive list of minimal complete sets is published. Furthermore, the generalization of the proposed procedure to processes with a larger number of amplitudes, i.e., $N>6$ amplitudes, is sketched. The generalized procedure is outlined for the next more complicated example of two-meson photoproduction ($N=8$ amplitudes).