Comparative Studies of Low Energy ppeta and ppeta-prime Systems with Cosy-11 Detector

TL;DR

This study compares invariant mass distributions for pp -> ppeta and pp -> ppeta-prime reactions at similar energies, providing insights into meson-proton interactions and challenging previous interaction hypotheses.

Contribution

It offers a direct comparison of eta and eta-prime production systems at low energies, with new differential cross section data for eta production.

Findings

Invariant mass distributions differ between eta and eta-prime systems.

Results suggest the observed enhancements are not due to meson-proton interactions.

Provides differential cross sections at Q=10 MeV for eta production.

Abstract

We present a comparison of the two-body invariant mass distributions for the pp -> ppeta and pp -> ppeta-prime reactions, both measured at a nominal excess energy value of Q = 15.5 MeV. For the pp -> ppeta reaction, in addition, the differential cross sections were extracted for an excess energy of Q = 10 MeV. The comparison of the results for the eta and eta-prime meson production rather excludes the hypothesis that the enhancement observed in the invariant mass distributions is due to the interaction of the meson and the proton.