Abstract
In backward photoproduction of mesons, the produced vector meson takes most of the struck nucleon momentum. The nucleon loses most of its momentum, and so is shifted several units of rapidity. Thus the Mandelstam is small, while the squared momentum transfer is typically large, near the kinematic limit. In a collider geometry, backward production transfers the struck baryon by many units of rapidity, in a striking similarity to baryon stopping. We explore this similarity, and point out the similarities between the Regge theories used to model baryon stopping with those that are used for backward production. We then explore how backward production can be explored at higher energies than are available at fixed target experiments, by studying production at an electron-ion collider. We calculate the expected cross sections and rates, finding that the rate for backward production is about 1/300 that of forward . We discuss the kinematics of backward production and consider the detector requirements for experimental study. We demonstrate that an experiment at the proposed U.S. Electron-Ion Collider will have the capability to detect backward-production events and may provide a test for models of stopping in high-energy collisions including the baryon-junction model.
1 More- Received 21 April 2022
- Accepted 24 June 2022
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevC.106.015204
Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article's title, journal citation, and DOI. Funded by SCOAP3.
Published by the American Physical Society