General analysis of polarization effects in coherent pseudoscalar mesons photo-- and electroproduction on deuteron

TL;DR

This paper derives general expressions for polarization observables in coherent pseudoscalar meson photo- and electroproduction on deuterons, providing a comprehensive framework for analyzing polarization effects in these reactions.

Contribution

It presents new general formulas for polarization observables and cross sections in meson production on deuterons, including explicit spin structure and helicity amplitude relations.

Findings

Derived explicit formulas for unpolarized cross sections

Analyzed polarization effects for various beam and target polarizations

Provided numerical estimates for key observables

Abstract

General expressions for the unpolarized differential cross section and for various polarization observables in the coherent pseudoscalar meson photo- and electroproduction on the deuteron target have been obtained in one-photon-exchange approximation. The spin structure of the matrix element is explicitly derived in terms of structure functions. The correspondence with the helicity amplitudes is given. The polarization effects have been investigated for the case of a longitudinally polarized electron beam and vector or tensor polarized deuteron target. The polarization (vector or tensor) of the scattered deuteron for the case of unpolarized or a longitudinally polarized electron beam is also considered. In the case of the photoproduction reaction, we consider linearly, circularly or elliptically polarized photon beam. Numerical estimations have been done for the unpolarized differential cross section and for some polarization observables.