On extraction of the total photoabsorption cross section on the neutron from data on the deuteron

TL;DR

This paper proposes an improved method to accurately extract the neutron's total photoabsorption cross section from deuteron data by accounting for Fermi motion effects and final-state interactions, enhancing the precision of such measurements.

Contribution

It introduces a novel procedure that includes unfolding smearing effects and non-additive contributions, providing a more reliable extraction method for neutron cross sections from deuteron data.

Findings

The new method effectively accounts for Fermi motion effects.

It incorporates non-additive contributions from final-state interactions.

Application to existing data demonstrates improved accuracy.

Abstract

An improved procedure is suggested for finding the total photoabsorption cross section on the neutron from data on the deuteron at energies < 1.5 GeV. It includes unfolding of smearing effects caused by Fermi motion of nucleons in the deuteron and also takes into account non-additive contributions to the deuteron cross section due to final-state interactions of particles in single and double pion photoproduction. This procedure is applied to analysis of existing data.