Polarization phenomena in open charm photoproduction processes.pdf

a r X i v : h e p - p h / 0 3 1 0 1 7 2 v 1 1 4 O c t 2 0 0 3 Polarization phenomena in open charm photoproduction processes Egle Tomasi-Gustafsson? DAPNIA/SPhN, CEA/Saclay, 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex, France Michail P. Rekalo? Middle East Technical University, Physics Department, Ankara 06531, Turkey (Dated: February 1, 2008) We analyze polarization effects in associative photoproduction of pseudoscalar (D) charmed mesons in exclusive processes γ +N → Yc +D, Yc = Λ + c , Σc. Circularly polarized photons induce nonzero polarization of the Yc-hyperon with x- and z-components (in the reaction plane) and non vanishing asymmetries Ax and Az for polarized nucleon target. These polarization observables can be predicted in model-independent way for exclusive D-production processes in collinear kinemat- ics. The T-even Yc-polarization and asymmetries for non-collinear kinematics can be calculated in framework of an effective Lagrangian approach. The depolarization coefficients Dab, characterizing the dependence of the Yc-polarization on the nucleon polarization are also calculated. PACS numbers: 21.10.Hw,13.88.+e,14.40.Lb,14.65.Dw I. INTRODUCTION The experimental study of photoproduction of charmed particles on nucleons through exclusive and inclusive re- actions: γ +N → Yc +Dc (D?c ), Yc = Λc(Σc), γ + N → N +Dc +Dc, γ + N → Λc(Λc) +X started about twenty years ago, [1, 2], in the energy range Eγ = 20÷ 70 GeV. Since then, several experiments were devoted to this subject, [3, 4, 5], but, up to now, the smallest energy where data are available is Eγ=20 GeV, [6], which is still relatively far from threshold (for example, Ethr = 8.7 GeV for γ + p → Λ+c +D 0). Charm particle photoproduction is usually interpreted according to the photon-gluon fusion mechanism (PGF), γ+G → c+c [7], which can be considered as the simplest QCD hard process (called leading order (LO) approximation). Considering the corresponding fragmentation functions for c → Dc+X , c → Yc+X , c → Dc+X ..., th