Measurement of the polarization parameter in π−p elastic scattering at 40 GeV/c

Abstract We report our first measurements of the polarization in the elastic scattering of negative pions from polarized protons at an incident pion momentum of 40 GeV/ c . The momentum-transfer region covered was 0.08 t | c ) 2 . The angular distribution of the polarization exhibits a first minimum of ∼ − 5% and the well-known zero around t ≈ − 0.6 (GeV/ c ) 2 . The energy variation of the first minimum (at around t = − 0.2) may be expressed in a simple form, P avr = −(0.48±0.06) s −0.52±0.05 .