Induced polarization of Λ(1116) in kaon electroproduction

Abstract

We have measured the induced polarization of the $\Lambda (1116)$ in the reaction $ep\to e^{\prime }{K}^{+}\Lambda$, detecting the scattered $e^{\prime }$ and $K^{+}$ in the final state along with the proton from the decay $\Lambda \to p{\pi }^{-}$.The present study used the CEBAF Large Acceptance Spectrometer (CLAS), which allowed for a large kinematic acceptance in invariant energy $W$ ($1.6\le W\le 2.7$ GeV) and covered the full range of the kaon production angle at an average momentum transfer $Q^2=1.90$ GeV${}^2$.In this experiment a 5.50 GeV electron beam was incident upon an unpolarized liquid-hydrogen target. We have mapped out the $W$ and kaon production angle dependencies of the induced polarization and found striking differences from photoproduction data over most of the kinematic range studied. However, we also found that the induced polarization is essentially $Q^2$ independent in our kinematic domain, suggesting that somewhere below the $Q^2$ covered here there must be a strong $Q^2$ dependence. Along with previously published photo- and electroproduction cross sections and polarization observables, these data are needed for the development of models, such as effective field theories, and as input to coupled-channel analyses that can provide evidence of previously unobserved $s$-channel resonances.

13 figures

References in corpus (5)

• Measurement of beam-recoil observables Ox, Oz and target asymmetry for the reaction gamma p -> K Lambda
• The reaction pi+ p --> K+ Sigma+ in a unitary coupled-channels model
• Differential cross section and photon beam asymmetry for the gamma n -> K+ Sigma- reaction at Egamma=1.5-2.4 GeV
• Electroproduction of kaons from the proton in a Regge-plus-resonance approach
• Separated Structure Functions for Exclusive $K^{+}\Lambda$ and $K^{+}{\Sigma }^0$ Electroproduction at 5.5 GeV with CLAS

Cited by in corpus (4)

• Strong QCD Insights from Excited Nucleon Structure Studies with CLAS and CLAS12
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• Beam-Recoil Transferred Polarization in $K^{+}Y$ Electroproduction in the Nucleon Resonance Region with CLAS12
• Deep Exclusive Meson Production as a probe to the puzzle of $\Lambda$ hyperon polarization