Nuclei as Probes of Meson-Nucleon Interactions at High and Low Energy

Abstract

This dissertation explores two main topics: 1) Color Transparency and quasi-elastic knockout reactions involving pions and &rho mesons; and 2) determination of the J/&psi-nucleon scattering amplitude and scattering length via J/&psi electroproduction on the deuteron. It is shown that at the energies available at the COMPASS experiment at CERN, Color Transparency should be detectable in the reaction &pi+A &rarr &pi+p+(A-1)^* (proton knockout). It is also shown that Color Transparency should be detectable in the electroproduction reaction &gamma^*+A &rarr &rho+p+(A-1)^* at small Q^2 (where Q^2 is the virtuality of the photon) but large t (4-momentum transfer squared to the knocked out proton), which represents an as-yet unexplored kinematic region in the search for CT effects in electroproduction of vector mesons. Calculations are also presented for the reaction &gamma^*+D &rarr J/&psi+p+n at JLab energies in order to determine the feasibility of measuring the elastic J/&psi-nucleon scattering amplitude and/or scattering length. It is found that it may be possible to measure the J/&psi-nucleon scattering amplitude at lower energies than previous measurements, but the scattering length cannot be measured.