The $\eta^{\prime}$-carbon potential at low meson momenta

Abstract.

The production of $\eta^{\prime}$ mesons in coincidence with forward-going protons has been studied in photon-induced reactions on ¹²C and on a liquid hydrogen (LH₂) target for incoming photon energies of 1.3-2.6 GeV at the electron accelerator ELSA. The $\eta^{\prime}$ mesons have been identified via the $\eta^{\prime} \rightarrow \pi^{0} \pi^{0}\eta \rightarrow 6 \gamma$ decay registered with the CBELSA/TAPS detector system. Coincident protons have been identified in the MiniTAPS BaF₂ array at polar angles of $2^{\circ} \le \theta_{p} \le 11^{\circ}$. Under these kinematic constraints the $\eta^{\prime}$ mesons are produced with relatively low kinetic energy ($\approx 150$ MeV) since the coincident protons take over most of the momentum of the incident-photon beam. For the C-target this allows the determination of the real part of the $\eta^{\prime}$-carbon potential at low meson momenta by comparing with collision model calculations of the $\eta^{\prime}$ kinetic energy distribution and excitation function. Fitting the latter data for $\eta^{\prime}$ mesons going backwards in the center-of-mass system yields a potential depth of $V = -(44 \pm 16(stat) \pm 15(syst))$ MeV, consistent with earlier determinations of the potential depth in inclusive measurements for average $\eta^{\prime}$ momenta of $\approx 1.1$ GeV/c. Within the experimental uncertainties, there is no indication of a momentum dependence of the $\eta^{\prime}$-carbon potential. The LH₂ data, taken as a reference to check the data analysis and the model calculations, provide differential and integral cross sections in good agreement with previous results for $\eta^{\prime}$ photoproduction off the free proton.