Measurements were performed for the photodisintegration cross section of the deuteron for photon energies from 1.6 to 2.8 GeV and center-of-mass angles from 37° to 90°. The measured energy dependence of the cross section at θc.m.=90° is in agreement with the constituent counting rules.
Statistical and systematic errors have been added in quadrature. Photon energy and angle (in deg) are in center-of-mass system.
The differential cross section for the reaction H2(γ,p)n has been measured at several center-of-mass angles ranging from 50° to 143° for photon energies between 0.8 and 1.8 GeV. The experiment was performed at the SLAC-NPAS facility with the use of the 1.6 GeV/c spectrometer to detect the high energy protons produced by a bremsstrahlung beam directed at a liquid deuterium target. Contributions from concurrent disintegration by the residual electron beam were determined by measuring the proton yield without the Cu photon radiator. At angles not very far from 90°, the energy dependence of the cross sections is consistent with predictions of scaling using counting rules for constituent quarks. At least one theoretical calculation based on a meson-baryon picture of the reaction is able to reproduce the magnitude and energy dependence of the 90° cross section. The angular distribution exhibits a large enhancement at backward angles at the higher energies.
THE QUOTED ERRORS ARE STATISTICAL ONLY.