Shadowing in the low energy photonuclear reaction

TL;DR

This paper investigates nuclear shadowing effects in low energy photonuclear reactions using vector meson dominance models, comparing simple and generalized approaches to experimental data in the 1-3 GeV energy range.

Contribution

It introduces a generalized vector meson dominance model that includes higher meson states to better estimate nuclear shadowing in photonuclear reactions.

Findings

GVMD model improves agreement with experimental data

Higher meson states significantly affect shadowing calculations

Shadowing effects are quantitatively characterized in the 1-3 GeV range

Abstract

The photonuclear reaction in the multi-GeV region occurs because of the electromagnetic and hadronic interaction. The later originates due to the hadronic fluctuation, i.e., vector meson, of the photon. The total cross section of the reaction is shadowed because of the vector meson nucleus (hadronic) interaction. To estimate it quantitatively, the cross section of the photonuclear reaction was calculated in the low energy region ($\sim 1-3$ GeV) using simple vector meson dominance (SVMD) model, i.e., the low lying vector mesons ($\rho^0$, $\omega$ and $\phi$ mesons) were considered. The nuclear shadowing is reinvestigated using generalized vector meson (GVMD) model, where the higher $\rho$ meson effective state ($\rho^\prime$ meson) is taken into account along with the low lying vector mesons. Using GVMD model, the shadowing and the total cross section of the photonuclear reaction are calculated in the above mentioned energy region. The calculated results have been compared with the measured spectra.