Measurement of the Transverse Target and Beam-Target Asymmetries in<mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><mml:mi>η</mml:mi></mml:math>Meson Photoproduction at MAMI

Abstract

We present new data for the transverse target asymmetry T and the very first data for the beam-target asymmetry F in the γ[over →]p[over →]→ηp reaction up to a center-of-mass energy of W=1.9 GeV. The data were obtained with the Crystal-Ball/TAPS detector setup at the Glasgow tagged photon facility of the Mainz Microtron MAMI. All existing model predictions fail to reproduce the new data indicating a significant impact on our understanding of the underlying dynamics of η meson photoproduction. The peculiar nodal structure observed in existing T data close to threshold is not confirmed.