Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2014

DOI

10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.182501

Publication Title

Physical Review Letters

Volume

112

Issue

18

Pages

182501 (6 pages)

Abstract

The study of exclusive π± electroproduction on the nucleon, including separation of the various structure functions, is of interest for a number of reasons. The ratio R-L=sigma(pi-)(L) / sigma(pi+)(L) is sensitive to isoscalar contamination to the dominant isovector pion exchange amplitude, which is the basis for the determination of the charged pion form factor from electroproduction data. A change in the value of R-T=sigma(pi-)(L) / sigma(pi+)(L) from unity at small -t, to 1/4 at large -t, would suggest a transition from coupling to a (virtual) pion to coupling to individual quarks. Furthermore, the mentioned ratios may show an earlier approach to perturbative QCD than the individual cross sections. We have performed the first complete separation of the four unpolarized electromagnetic structure functions above the dominant resonances in forward, exclusive π± electroproduction on the deuteron at central Q2 values of 0.6, 1.0, 1.6 GeV2 at W=1.95 GeV, and Q2=2.45 GeV2 at W=2.22 GeV. Here, we present the L and T cross sections, with emphasis on R-L and R-T, and compare them with theoretical calculations. Results for the separated ratio R-L indicate dominance of the pion-pole diagram at low -t, while results for R-T are consistent with a transition between pion knockout and quark knockout mechanisms.

Comments

This article is open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution license.

Original Publication Citation

Huber, G. M., Blok, H. P., Butuceanu, C., Gaskell, D., Horn, T., Mack, D. J., . . . Jefferson Lab, C. (2014). Separated response function ratios in exclusive, forward π± electroproduction. Physical Review Letters, 112(18), 182501. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.112.182501

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