Investigation of near-threshold eta production in the pd->pd eta reaction

Abstract

We propose to measure the near threshold eta meson production in the pd->pd eta reaction for five excess energies in the range from 1 MeV to 7 MeV. The experiment can be performed with the COSY-11 facility supplemented with an additional detector for measuring momenta of the final state deuterons. The proton momenta will be measured with the existing detector set and the eta mesons will be identified via the missing mass determination. Data on the pd->pd eta reaction are needed in order to contribute to the understanding of the eta meson production mechanism in a three nucleon system. They are also important for studies of the low energy eta-deuteron interaction, which according to theoretical predictions can be strong enough to form quasi-bound states.

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