Modification of the $ω$-Meson Lifetime in Nuclear Matter

Kotulla, M.; Trnka, D.; Mühlich, P.; Anton, G.; Bacelar, J. C. S.; Bartholomy, O.; Bayadilov, D.; Beloglazov, Y. A.; Bogendörfer, R.; Castelijns, R.; Crede, V.; Dutz, H.; Ehmanns, A.; Elsner, D.; Ewald, R.; Fabry, I.; Fuchs, M.; Essig, K.; Funke, Ch.; Gothe, R.; Gregor, R.; Gridnev, A. B.; Gutz, E.; Höffgen, S.; Hoffmeister, P.; Horn, I.; Hössl, J.; Jaegle, I.; Junkersfeld, J.; Kalinowsky, H.; Klein, Frank; Klein, Fritz; Klempt, E.; Konrad, M.; Kopf, B.; Krusche, B.; Langheinrich, J.; Löhner, H.; Lopatin, I. V.; Lotz, J.; Lugert, S.; Menze, D.; Messchendorp, J. G.; Mertens, T.; Metag, V.; Mosel, U.; Nanova, M.; Novotny, R.; Ostrick, M.; Pant, L. M.; van Pee, H.; Pfeiffer, M.; Roy, A.; Radkov, A.; Schadmand, S.; Schmidt, Ch.; Schmieden, H.; Schoch, B.; Shende, S.; Suft, G.; Sumachev, V. V.; Szczepanek, T.; Süle, A.; Thoma, U.; Varma, R.; Walther, D.; Weinheimer, Ch.; Wendel, Ch.

Modification of the $ω$-Meson Lifetime in Nuclear Matter

Authors

Description

The photo production of $ω$ mesons on the nuclei C, Ca, Nb and Pb has been measured using the Crystal Barrel/TAPS detector at the ELSA tagged photon facility in Bonn. The dependence of the $ω$ meson cross section on the nuclear mass number has been compared with three different types of models, a Glauber analysis, a BUU analysis of the Giessen theory group and a calculation by the Valencia theory group. In all three cases, the inelastic $ω$ width is found to be $130-150 \rm{MeV/c^2}$ at normal nuclear matter density for an average 3-momentum of 1.1 GeV/c. In the restframe of the $ω$ meson, this inelastic $ω$ width corresponds to a reduction of the $ω$ lifetime by a factor $\approx 30$. For the first time, the momentum dependent $ω$N cross section has been extracted from the experiment and is in the range of 70 mb.
5 pages, 4 figures